POP Remains a Growth Area for Print

Point-of-purchase (POP) and point-of-sale (POS) advertising remains a growth area for print, despite competition from electronic signage with changeable messaging. Because POP uses a variety of materials and is produced in sizes that range from a few inches to 15´, many interested printers can

Boston's I.T. Strategies defines POP advertising as displays, signage and other media that communicate to customers at retail, where 70% of all brand purchase decisions are made. In a 2003 study, I.T. estimated that 2002 worldwide POP advertising expenditures for print were about $44 billion ($17.4 billion in the U.S.). Analog printing technologies (screen, offset, flexo, gravure and photo) made up more than 75% of the market; digital printing (inkjet and electrophotography) made up about 23%.

Since the study, digital technologies have gained market share. “It's a growth area,” says Gregg Seidel, president and owner of Ad Tech, El Segundo, CA, the company that manufactures a POP shelf talker called Infoshade. “More brands are spending money on in-store media, particularly at the shelf.” Ad Tech, with its pull down and retractable Infoshade, is an example of a POP company that buys its print. Seidel, who also invented the product, says the whole idea is to give the consumer more information in a limited area. For the shade portion, which is printed offset at Apple Graphics in Duarte, CA, Seidel chose Yupo synthetic paper for its quality and durability. Microsoft was Ad Tech's first customer almost five years ago, and Infoshade now sells in 26 countries.

The newest offset presses from Heidelberg, KBA, MAN Roland, Mitsubishi and others handle heavier substrates and offer features such as inline UV curing and diecutting. For shorter run POP, wide-format inkjet printers including aqueous, solvent, eco solvent and flatbed are competitive.

At the On Demand show in May, Canon launched its imagePROGRAF W6400 (24´´) and W8400 (44´´) models that offer increased quality and speed, handle 28 types of media, and come bundled with new software for image editing and templates for a variety of applications. Amit Bagchi, director of Canon U.S.A.'s Printer Division, Imaging Systems Group, says that I.T. Strategies research shows that some 30% to 40% of wide-format customers are doing POP work. “The software that drives the device is all important,” he says.

Although MacDermid offers a flatbed machine, most come from grand-format solvent machine manufacturers like NUR (shown) and EFI's Vutek, plus other market leaders like Durst and Screen's Inca. The U.K.'s Web Consulting's 2005 report on the category says that the 650 high-end and mid-range flatbed inkjet printers sold in 2004 represent a year-over-year growth of 82%. The report also forecasts a new product category in low-cost flatbed inkjet devices and predicts that, ultimately, UV-curable inkjet technologies will partly replace aqueous and even solvent inkjet.