Digital Retail Signage – A Study in Effective Design By Bruce Orr At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

To be successful, digital retail signage content needs to be planned and executed with certain goals in mind. It must:

• Speak directly to the target audience
• Meet the expectations of that audience
• Suit the retail environment, i.e. be of the right format and length
• Meet the retailer’s goals for entertaining viewers, informing them, marketing to them etc.

If digital retail signage can meet all of those goals, it will help the retailer build its brand and market its products. If it can go one step further and deliver messages in an innovative and creative manner, it will establish the retailer as an industry leader and draw attention far beyond its targeted audience.

Wal-Mart Canada is an example of a retailer that did its homework and came up with a fun and novel idea for its digital retail signage. Here’s a brief study of how and why their digital signage works so well.

Getting to Know Their Audience

Before creating their content, Wal-Mart took the time to learn who their core shoppers are. Their demographic studies told them that the average shopper is a 44-year-old woman with one or more children who visits their stores twice as often and spends about 11 times more than other shopper segments.

Knowing their core shopper so well, Wal-Mart set out to create a character for its digital retail signage that would get her attention, entertain her and keep her informed of what the store has to offer. Enter “Lisa”, an animated character who is married with two children and a dog.

Lisa speaks directly to the core shopper in entertaining 30-second segments. There is a progression planned for Lisa’s appearances. At first she will talk in general terms about how shopping at Wal-Mart can make life easier. Shoppers will become familiar with Lisa and accustomed to paying attention to her. Eventually, third-party ads will be incorporated to promote specific items sold at Wal-Mart. The other members of Lisa’s family will also start appearing to broaden the connection with other shopper segments.

So how does Lisa help Wal-Mart reach the goals for digital retail signage content that we outlined above?

• She is a mirror image of the target audience. Even though she is animated, she demonstrates a real understanding of what the core shopper needs.

• She meets the expectations of the core shopper that the store is aiming to reach. Wal-Mart shoppers expect digital retail signage with a simple message that gets to the point. Lisa fits the bill perfectly.

• Lisa’s segments also suit the retail environment. The message is direct, fun, and,at only thirty seconds long, the segments are the right length for shoppers who have limited time.

• By gradually evolving the star of their digital retail signage from entertainer to spokesperson, Wal-Mart seems to have the right balance between a fun diversion that boosts their brand and a direct marketing tool that sells their products.

Above all, Lisa is innovative. She is a character that shoppers can relate to and be comfortable with. Her ads will seem less like advertising and more like a conversation, ensuring that Wal-Mart’s digital retail signage communicates effectively with its target audience, makes those shoppers feel at home and gives them a highly positive shopping experience.

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