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Digital Signage Marketing as the New Marketing Medium
Retail Digital Signage is defined a "the visual content displayed in a retail environment, delivered digitally through a centrally managed and controlled network". From a marketing perspective the Retail Digital Signage network must be integrated into the overall retail marketing strategy including: print, newspaper advertising, in-store printed materials, television advertising, etc. When the digital signage marketing network is integrated into their marketing strategy the digital content displays the overall message intended for the store's products or services offerings. Considering this fundamental requirement the key benefits of Retail Digital Signage networks are summarized as follows:
- Retail Digital Signage messaging is dynamic, possessing the capability to display complex graphics and videos, resulting in attention garnering messages.
- Retail digital signage marketing messages are capable of rapid deployment system-wide, store-wide or in a single store aisle, and can leverage specific regional and store conditions, such as customer demographics, weather conditions, promotions, educational content, and can further be fractionalized into day-parts.
- Retail digital signage networks can be centrally monitored, ensuring that system-wide, brand-compliant messages are deployed. This represents a major advantage over other forms of in-store communications, which are plagued with questions of store compliance.
- Retail digital signage marketing can enhance customer service and improve store personnel productivity. Digital signage assists customers in locating the merchandise they are looking for in the store, and can provide in-depth information and product demonstrations to aid in the purchase decision.
- Retail digital signage marketing networks can reduce in-store operating costs associated with graphics deployments and increase labor productivity relative to other types of signage. Retail Digital Signage eliminates the costs associated with printing, distributing and installing static signage. In addition, Retail Digital Signage may decrease store labor costs, while improving labor productivity. For example, the US Postal Service is experimenting with digital signage marketing to direct customers with simple service requirements to self-service options, and to educate customers while waiting in the lobby line about products and services to reduce time spent with a retail associate at the counter, thus improving its employee productivity.
- Digital signage marketing networks are capable of timely and accurate measurement of a message's impact upon a consumer.
A practical illustration of these benefits, for example, is advanced by a financial institution which identified the purpose of adopting digital signage marketing networks as: "delivering compelling product messages to customers while creating a quick and far-reaching communication delivery source." The following objective were identified:
- Cross sell the customer while they are visiting the branch
- Decrease customer complaints regarding transaction wait times
- Improve turnaround time between conception and delivery
- Decrease printing costs of branch signage and rate fliers
- Effectively communicate bank messages and information to branch employees
- Provide turnkey marketing to branches
As a new in-store marketing medium, digital signage networks posses various key benefits:
- Retail Digital Signage eliminates the time-lag between consumer exposure to a message and the place of purchase
- Digital signage marketing enabled technology possesses the ability to directly correlate the message to its sales impact
- The dynamic nature of digital signage marketing networks enhances its ability to make timely changes of messages in response to changing consumer and environmental factors.
--source: Platt Retail Institute
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