Getting Noticed: The Retail Display

So back when myself, (Colin) and Shannon brought our first shipment over to a retailer in the north west in person. I wanted a chance to meet the buyer Shannon had been dealing with, because he was young, friendly and helpful.

We got to talking about their new season of clothing and the process behind their spring rollout. Trying to take a more critical look at the realm in which our products will be sold, I noticed a few retail displays lying around the store. Mostly the acrylic things you see everywhere, our buyer told us that most of the ones he gets in are way to big to incorporate into their space.

So with this concept in mind, I asked him a few more questions. He told us that as long as it was small enough to put where he wants, like on the cash desk POS style, or with the ties, it has to suit the area.

All I could think was how we needed one to keep our product out of drawers where they wouldn't be noticed. So I set off to create something to show off the squares in a vivid, voluminous way.

Browsing through craft stores and the dollar store, I collected a few pieces I thought would work well together for our prototype. A photo frame, placed on its back, with a glass vase and some decorative sand mixed with glue. It looked nice, but there were some issues that Shannon brought up on inspection.

Photo Frame: $3.00        
Decorative Sand: $2.00       Total: $8
Glass Vase: $3.00             

Issues:
Must have space for boxes to be displayed i.e. shelves or otherwise,
Decorative sand is easy to pick off and does not hold vase effectively.

Pros:
Vase shows squares well,
Should have logo space

While discussing potential materials, and a growing distaste for cheap acrylic (not cheap to buy), Shannon decided to talk to his finishing carpenter step-dad Don, (seems so obvious now).

We did up a plan for him to visualize and got to work;

MDF and 7 or 8 woodworking tools

Total cost remained under $10 per unit, not including the beer and pizza fund contributions for the labour. We wanted to keep it really cheap so it wouldn't cut into our profit margins for each retailer. Complications to deal with include shipping the heavy MDF boxes, and we have to find a way to pack them carefully with the glass vases

In the garage at -15C

Our first cut out box. We changed the hole size to fit the new vase more snugly.

Painted photo corners to make the logo look more polished when attached to the box.

To finish the project we created a simple one pager about how to arrange the pocket squares and the boxes to show retailers how to best take advantage of the display. It is included in the shipment.

First set ready for shipping