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Maximizing your
Visual Merchandising Potential |
Studies confirm that visual merchandising materials such
as professional displays, signage, fixturing and other point
of purchase elements unquestionably increase sales.
Vision Care professionals have a unique opportunity to
work with leading eyewear and lens vendors, with
professional optical marketing consultants, and with
national vision care support organizations to develop
powerful visual merchandising materials that deliver
messages of quality, style and professional services to
patients where it counts the most ... inside a practice.
The Goals of Visual Merchandising
Visual merchandising can metaphorically be considered
your “silent salesperson,” achieving the following
goals:
Visibility, simplicity, originality, cleanliness, and
timeliness are the “Golden Rules” of effective visual
merchandising presentations.
Proper Placement and Presentation
Virtually every area of your practice holds the potential
for effective merchandising. From windows and walls ... to
ceilings and countertops ... opportunities abound for
quick identification of frames and lenses, for focusing
attention on a favorite brand, or for communicating a
desired message.
Window Presentations: Windows are a magnetic draw that
can convert the potential passerby into real patient
profitability. Focus attention on one or two important
themes - be it an artful arrangement of the hottest designer
frames ... or a well done vignette featuring your newest
sunwear introductions. Too much unrelated material confuses
rather than enhances your presentation.
Lease Line (entryway) Opportunities: Here’s the place
to introduce a special promotion ... announce an event ... or elicit inquiries concerning a new product or service.
Floor standing sign holders with back-to-back signage that
can be read from either direction ... overhead banners
that deliver a stand-out message ... or a floor-standing
fixture enhanced with promotional graphics … all offer the
potential to pique patient curiosity as they enter your
practice.
Waiting Room Materials: What a perfect opportunity to
present patients with a quick read or a take-home pamphlet
on the vital importance of vision care for the whole family
... or the quality differences among different brands of
sunwear or eyewear... or the hottest new lens options and
frame materials. Displaying and disseminating these
materials emphasize your commitment toward the delivery of
quality care and materials.
Wall-mounted Displays: Use your wall space to create
attractive and functional visual merchandising systems
tailored to your dispensing area. From convenient slat wall
displays to high-impact light boxes featuring beautiful back
lit graphics (duratrans), high visibility walls offer
maximum impact in merchandising and marketing your best
selling brands. Be sure to intersperse your frame offerings
with logos, lifestyle graphics, and brief “sound bites”
of product information.
Countertop Merchandising: While countertop space is
often limited, you can optimize your counter space with
small, space-saving frame or lens displays positioned
adjacent to appropriate lifestyle and promotional
countercards. Wherever space permits, you might consider
featuring ‘Informational Countercards’ addressing such
topics as the importance of maximum sun protection, the
concept of prescription sunwear, or an eyewear or lens
offering’s unique points of difference.
In Case Presentations: Tent logos, couvettes, and
in-case signage are but a few of the wide variety of
merchandising opportunities designed to enhance your
under-glass presentations. Eyewear presented under glass
often conveys an upscale image – the feeling of a
treasured collectable or an important piece of jewelry.
Targeting Your Patient Population
Who are your patients and what do they want most? From
kids to tweens and teens . . . from baby boomers to matures
… each group forms a unique marketing niche of similar
opinions, common needs, similar buying instincts and
motives. Tracking and knowing your demographics and their
lifestyles gives you the power to communicate to your target
customers in so many ways:
In Communicating to Children ...
Here is your chance to
design and create a fantasy presentation that brings fun and
excitement to children and communicates factual information
and a sense of quality to the adult.
When Talking To Tweens and Teens
... If you talk in a
language that’s purely visual and give them the attitudes
and values that mean the most, like truth, fun and
independence, they’ll listen. Say it all in graphics and
quick sound bites.
Though Boomers are, perhaps, your Busiest Demographic
... they want all the facts. Put them in control by giving
them what’s real and true ... all the information they
need to judge a product and to make an educated buying
decision.
Because Matures are Loyal … brand names and logos are
an extremely powerful merchandising force. Speak to them
clearly about quality and value – these are essential
elements to matures – vital to making a purchasing
decision.
Establishing Your Identity In Fashion Eyewear
Combining your professional recommendations with the
power of popular designer and brand name frames can
translate to big business for your practice. Creating high
visibility vignettes of your most prestigious and popular
collections can quickly identify you as a Fashion Eyewear
Professional:
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In creating a designer vignette, it is vital that you
be consistent with a designer’s image and philosophy. Your
vignette should always reflect the unique and personal
approach to style established by the designer. If possible,
visit a designer’s own boutique to see, first hand, how
fashions and accessories are presented.
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Always use professional, vendor supplied materials in
a vignette. These have been created in conjunction with the
designer and his team to ensure consistency of design
philosophy and image.
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Update promotional materials and frames regularly to
enforce your fashion savvy, showing patients you are right
on top the latest and greatest in designer frames.
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Cross-promote your key brands throughout your
practice via logos, graphics and signage in the window …
in the waiting room . . . and in your dispensing area …
clearly identifying and communicating their availability in
your practice.
Powerful visual merchandising offers you unlimited
marketing potential. It is an ideal way to strengthen your
practice’s unique identity at every turn. From dazzling
your patients with designer logos . . . to intriguing them
with posters, and patient-focused signage that speaks to
their special lifestyle . . . effective product presentation
and appropriate, well placed merchandising materials
delivers the marketing magic that can increase sales – and
your bottom line.
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