A Pot of Point of Sale Gold

Point of sale window display

What’s the point of point-of-sale advertising? As the term “point-of-sale” implies, it’s to drive more sales. In the beer market, there are a number of ways to do that, whether it’s focusing on pricing, special promotions or branding.

For Tennyson Lacasio, print shop manager for Colonial Wholesale Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass., it’s all about driving sales with displays that make potential customers stop, look, think and buy.

The project pictured here for Landry’s Liquors did exactly that as part of last year’s St. Patrick’s Day promotion for beers brewed by Diageo: Guinness Draught, Guinness Extra Stout and Smithwick’s Ale.

“Those three front windows face the main road, so you can’t help but notice the display. There were people stopping by just to look at the sign, which brought Landry’s more business for those brands,” says Lacasio. “They kept the display up through July 4 because it was getting so much attention and the owner said the sales of those brands went up. It was definitely an impact display and high-quality advertising for the store itself.”

The display was created in three panels for each of the front windows, printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, applied to Coroplast and laminated with LexJet 3 Mil Matte UV Standard Low Melt laminate.

“We didn’t have to wrap the laminate around the edges of the Coroplast since the panels are placed inside the window and there’s no danger of moisture getting in between the laminate and the print. The matte is popular because it cuts down on the glare so you don’t lose the image from different perspectives,” explains Lacasio.

Lacasio adds that this is one of the most intricate designs he’s created, especially when it came to finding and working with all the different varieties of leprechauns from which to choose.

“I found that there were two basic types of leprechauns: cartoon and scary. We obviously went with the cartoon style. From there, I had to find those that matched from a compositional style and then properly crop and size them so they fit with the overall design,” explains Lacasio.

Need for Speed at the Point of Sale

Printing cooler wraps for point of sale advertising

Hot off the presses, or hot off the track in this case, is the latest point-of-sale masterpiece from Tennyson Lacasio, print shop manager for Colonial Wholesale Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass. The key to a nice-looking cooler wrap, says Lacasio, is detailed measurements before you design it.

Point of sale advertising with cooler wrapsIn this case there were minor variations in the lengths and widths of the cooler areas that would get the NASCAR graphics and Miller Lite and Coors Light branding treatments, but by and large they were relatively square and level.

Once measurements are taken, Lacasio says he creates a framework with all the elements, including obstacles like cooler door handles, in CorelDRAW. Once that’s created he sets up a new file and adds the imagery.

Lacasio printed the images on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene and laminated them with LexJet 3 Mil Matte UV Standard Low Melt (3 Mil).

“I usually go with LexJet’s gloss laminate because it really gives the images extra pop, but in this case I chose the matte finish laminate because part of the problem using the gloss laminate for indoor installations is the light reflecting off the images. I’ve been meaning to try the matte laminate anyway, and this was the perfect excuse,” says Lacasio. “It came out really nice, it’s very visible throughout the entire store and it gives it a real nice finished look to it.”

Lacasio adds that the cooler wrap dominates the store; it’s the first thing you see when you walk in. The store itself, 44 Liquors, is relatively small, but it does a lot of volume at its prime spot on Route 44 in Massachusetts.

“I was looking for a sense of movement throughout the design because of the subject matter and the fact that we want people who are buying beer to get involved in the imagery. When we installed the project we took out almost all of the competitor’s advertising and now we basically own the entire space,” says Lacasio.

Pouring Guinness: A Point of Sale Display that Sells while it Pours

Point of sale display with pouring beer and inkjet printed graphicsThe entire point of any graphics display is to attract attention and ultimately sell the products being promoted, which is especially true in the beer market at the point of sale. As always, Tennyson Lacasio of Colonial Wholesale Beverage Corp. in North Dartmouth, Mass., went above and beyond to do just that.

This time around, Guinness wanted to make a splash with its new Black Lager at Colonial’s largest account, Yankee Spirits, and Lacasio decided to create a display that was both a figurative and literal splash.

With a little Yankee ingenuity and water-resistant materials from LexJet, Lacasio built a promotional case display that features Black Lager (actually water dyed with calligraphy ink) pouring from a vat tap into a seven-foot tall Black Lager bottle.

Three dimensional and inkjet printed Guinness point of purchase displayLacasio created the eight-foot tall backing graphic, a brewery vat, printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene and applied to Coroplast, then attached a pipe system he picked up from Lowe’s to pour down into the bottle.

The bottle was an old promotional Miller High Life promo piece that Lacasio spray painted then applied LexJet Extreme AquaVinyl w/PSA for the neck label and LexJet TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl PSA for the main label.

“For the main label I applied the TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl to a large case card and then bent the case card to the outside shape of the bottle,” explains Lacasio. “It would have been difficult to get the vinyl to adhere without creating creases toward the bottom of the bottle so the case card was a great solution. I then attached the graphic with black Gorilla tape to the edge of the label onto the bottle.”

The circulation system uses a sump pump at the bottom of the bottle, which feeds to a plastic line up to where the pipe comes out of the main vat display and back into the bottle. Lacasio says getting the pipe to align with the bottle properly was a bit of trial and error, but once set it worked like a charm.

Inkjet printed and Coroplast mounted point of sale display“When we were trying to aim the water into the bottle I got soaked a couple of times, but it didn’t harm the graphics at all. We just wiped them down with paper towels and there was no problem with the ink running or smudging,” says Lacasio. “I was very impressed with the way in which the AquaVinyl handled the water getting sprayed on the graphics; it was just another example of LexJet products coming through for us.”

Lacasio also produced information Guinness signs on either side (food pairing information, for instance) and a 3’ x 8’ hanging banner heralding the new Guinness beer for St. Patrick’s Day. The informational signs and the banner were printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene and applied to Coroplast.

“I had about two days to complete it after we met with the Guinness rep. There was some question as to whether or not it could be done, so it was quite fulfilling to install it as it was designed. Plus, the display is extremely shoppable. In other words, you can grab beer from the display without worrying about it falling down or coming apart. People were picking up cases as we were finishing the display, and that’s what you want,” says Lacasio. “When you walk into the store there’s a wall of Guinness to your left, and the big display is right there as soon as you walk into the store. You can hear the water circulating, so the sound of it further grabs your attention.”

To get a sense of the experience of walking into Yankee Spirits, seeing the display and how it works, check out the YouTube video embedded below…

Leveraging Point of Sale Signage and Product Placement with Design

Printing signs for point of sale

It’s no secret that craft beers are the fastest growing segment of the beer market, and due to their growing importance to liquor store owners and other purveyors of fine brews, craft brews require a different sales technique at the point of sale.

Point of sale signage for craft beersIn the beer market, price points have traditionally been the top sales point in a typical point of sale sign. However, with craft beers the sale is different. Beer distributors that sell craft beers take extra time and effort to educate the customer about the various types of craft beers, even going so far as to take a page out of the wine menu and pair them with complementary foods.

The project show here produced for Raynham Wine & Liquors in Raynham, Mass., by Colonial Wholesale Beverage Corp. – designed, printed and installed by Colonial’s Tennyson Lacasio – is a perfect illustration of the craft beer sales concept writ super-large across 90 feet of cooler space.

The sign has just a taste of branding at either side, with 12 foot long bottles of Colonial’s latest addition to its beer portfolio from Boulevard Brewing Company, Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale and Long Strange Tripel, as bookends to the sign. Other than those two bottles, there’s no branding and no pricing. The rest of the sign marks the store’s Beer Cave, flanked by a quick explanation of craft beer types shown bubbling up in the glasses in which they’re made to be enjoyed.

Though light on branding and absent pricing, Colonial’s Lacasio says this treatment is entirely appropriate, leading consumers to Colonial’s craft beers. It’s also exactly what the store owner wanted, giving Colonial better product positioning in the store while helping cement the relationship. Colonial went head to head with a competing distributor on this project, and pulled ahead for the point of sale victory with Lacasio’s classy, crafty design.

Making beer signs with an inkjet printerThe 90-foot long by 43-inch tall cooler sign was printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polpropylene and applied to Coroplast, which was attached to the wall with an industrial hook-and-loop system, a.k.a., a product that rhymes with Melcro.

Lacasio says he only uses the industrial hook-and-loop system for signs that will be attached to the wall permanently, or for a long time. This method is preferable to screws and washers that mar the overall look of the sign, he says.

Lacasio and one of Colonial’s merchandisers spent the good part of a day applying the graphics to the Coroplast, working from the middle panel out to ensure an even application across the cooler, making sure to leave some extra material at the end so you don’t come up short after all that work.

Point of Sale Perfection: Looking Good Sells Beer

Making beer signs with an inkjet printerWhat’s the point of advertising? The point is obvious, particularly if you’re trying to sell beer at various locations around town where the final sale is most often made at the point of sale. That’s a lot of points and no one makes those points better for beer than Tennyson Lacasio of Colonial Wholesale Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass.

Lacasio’s attention to design detail and the flawless production and installation of the signs that promote the various brands Colonial sells ensures that their brands get front-and-center attention at the liquor stores, convenience stores, bars, restaurants and other purveyors of suds that dot the landscape.

Eye-catching signage not only attracts customers in the store, but prompts owners and managers to request more signs and provide Colonial with more space with which to advertise in their establishments. Take two recent projects Lacasio put together for a couple of local liquor stores…

The first was a sign project located 15-20 feet above the store’s floor displays. The request was for three billboard-style 5′ x 11′ signs to be mounted to a wooden frame system above the floor displays. The three brands Lacasio was tasked with promoting were Coors Light, Miller Lite and Blue Moon.

Given the visibility of the signs and the opportunity to outshine the competitors, Lacasio worked with the general concepts of each brand, but put his own brand on it by mixing and matching elements. For instance, on the Blue Moon sign Lacasio explains, “I was given a lot more liberty with the Blue Moon sign. Blue Moon has a fine-art style they use on some of their promotions, but the customer didn’t want to go that route. They felt the idea of the orange with the Blue Moon label wouldn’t go away, so they wanted to incorporate that element. What came out of it are blues, oranges and greens that are very bright and vibrant, making it stand out more than any of the other signs. The store manager was quite pleased with the result.”

Lacasio shifted elements, worked with complementary, brand-focused colors and a variety of bottle and can configurations on the other signs to accomplish his objective, which was to “make them very visible and readable from that distance without overdoing it.” Mission accomplished.

The graphics were applied to Duraboard using Photo Tex adhesive-backed fabric. To avoid unsightly screws in the graphics, which mar the adjacent competing signs, the Duraboard was first attached to the wood frame then the Photo Tex was applied for a smooth, seamless look. Bottom line? “They’ve been putting more of our products on the floor, so in that respect it’s had the desired effect. And, because of the signs we created, they’re putting in an additional three signs, and we’ll get two of those three spaces for our brands. We’ll get additional signage because they’re pleased with what we did. We were able to convey the product better than our competitors.”

The second project was for a seaside liquor store near the wharf with window signs and a long indoor wall wrap on tap. Again, Lacasio skillfully matched the necessities of branding with local color. In this case, he pulled beach, seagull and sailing themes to tie into the area, as well as a potent mix of colors to grab the attention of people passing by, driving by and walking out of the grocery store across the street.

Printing window signsThe brands in this case were Miller High Life, Miller Lite, Coors Lite and Icehouse. For the Coors Light outdoor window sign as an example, Lacasio says, “The owner wanted to emphasize the cans in the sign so I used the Coors train, re-designed the background, added three cans in the image and put large impact red price points. The gold color in the writing actually pops off the Coors Light signs, more than the usual gray. It’s easy to read, getting across the product and the price while giving it enough composition on the bottom to accommodate the pricing on the top.”

Lacasio followed the same line of thinking for the rest of the outdoor window signs, combining colors and images for a cohesive whole that gets the message across effectively for each brand.

On the inside of the store, Lacasio created a 40-foot-long Coors Light banner with a beach, boat and bird theme. As Lacasio puts it, “I wanted something beachy, but not cheesy.” The indoor Coors Light banner was applied to the wall with LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, which was also used for the window signs, but applied to Coroplast that was then attached to the windows with Printing wall signsindustrial-strength hook-and-loop fasteners (which you may know better as a trademarked name that starts with V and rhymes with Melcro).

Lacasio adds, “The other signs were pretty poor at best and duct taped in the windows, so this gives us an opportunity to get more representation on the building itself. The quality of the signs outside allowed us to firm up the advertising space on the inside.”