In the 70’s, an early experiential marketing concept was getting off the ground. Children’s books, puzzles, and games were sold in different departments within a store making it hard for consumers to find everything. Solution: Permanent rack systems to sell “like” products in one location.
Western Publishing’s promotions, sales, marketing, and licensing groups worked together to create 4’ – 40’ of permanent multi-teared wooden racks. They were visually appealing and offered consumers books, activity products, puzzles, crayons, and later, video—the right mix of products in one place. Result: Success! Rack systems were sold into 100,000 retail outlets across the country. These planogrammed racks were an early form of “experiential marketing”.
Experiential marketing is the process of creating an experience, engagement and memorable experiences for the customer rather than approaching them through traditional marketing methods.
Fast forward to the 90’s and Western was determined to further elevate the consumer experience at retail. The answer: corrugated point-of-purchase promotional displays.
In the heyday of Western’s point-of-purchase success, over 250,000 were sold annually. They even entered the P.O.P.A.I Competition (Point of Purchase Advertising Institute)and received a Bronze Award for their Tootle the Train display which featured 616 Golden products. The following year, they won the highest Gold Award with a huge Disneyland Castle that held 1,100 Golden products.
Today these large 3-D displays, Pop Ups, Store within a Store concepts all offer consumers a “location-based entertainment” experience and sweep them away in the theme and wonderment of the moment filled with alluring products. Experiential marketing is not just another buzz word it is here to stay!
Sandhill consultants Nick Clementi and Kris Tarantino were part of the Western Publishing change-making team that created retail experiences through award-winning POP’s.
Contact Sandhill Consulting Group at info@sandhillconsultinggroup.com to see how your business can benefit from Sandhill’s breadth of experience and creativity in experiential marketing, packaging and planogram systems.
