Tool specialist Stanley and Jakala, a leader in customer loyalty and promotions, asked POP Solutions to roll out a large-scale campaign in 900 U chain stores across France. The company proved more than equal to this challenging brief, which even spawned a newcomer to the POP range…
“I had a few hectic evenings,” admits Laurent Van Caubergh, Account Manager at POP Solutions. When Jakala asked him to design a display for 14 Stanley products as part of a loyalty campaign in Hyper U, Super U and U Express stores in France, he had little idea of what lay ahead. How would he sum up the experience? “A series of problems and challenges, each crazier than the last,” he smiles.
As part of the campaign run by Jakala and Stanley at U stores, the chain’s customers could collect a stamp each time they spent €10 and use these stamps to get a substantial discount on 14 Stanley tool products. 900 stores took part. Three furniture units went to each Hyper U store, with each Super U store getting two and each U Express store one. In total, POP had to design and supply 1,600 displays and all their accessories (forex POS fittings, railing, hooks, perforated backs, protective cabling, etc.) to showcase 190,000 products – all in under six months. Four months were needed for development, creation, prototyping and finalisation of the models, while production took two months.
Although most POS displays are made of cardboard, this was not an option in this case. “The aim was to fill each display as much as possible,” recalls Laurent. “With drills, wheeled storage units, cordless screwdrivers, and so on. We had no choice, we needed a sturdy piece of furniture made of metal.” Another difficulty was that the customer wanted two different sizes and three different models, none of which could exceed 1,200 x 800 mm, the size of a pallet.
Only one pallet of promotional material could be delivered per store, regardless of whether it was a Hyper U, Super U or U Express. “It didn’t matter how much furniture had to be delivered to a store, we could only use one pallet. All the accessories and promotional material like totems, price strips and leaflets had to fit on it too!” Not to mention the logistical headache of ensuring that each store received the right amount of furniture without anything going missing. “As far as I know, out of the 900 pallets delivered, only two sets of price strips were missing and one forex product was damaged when the truck was unloaded. I think we can be pleased with that result.”
POP Solutions and its client wanted to work with a short supply chain. The furniture was ultimately manufactured in Europe using exclusively European materials and all the POS fittings were created in POP’s Nivelles plant. “Of course, this is a bit more expensive,” admits Laurent. “But the price was offset by the many benefits, particularly in terms of logistics, especially during the COVID pandemic.”
So, did all this hard work pay off? “The U store campaign was a resounding commercial success,” confirms the Account Manager. “The results far outstripped Jakala’s sales forecasts, hitting 140% of targets in the first week alone. Our displays wowed the client, the retailer and consumers alike.”
This success was so phenomenal that the furniture designed for Jakala and Stanley led to the creation of a new POP range: Infinity. “We used these metal displays as a basis for the first circular and modular standard display. While cardboard has an average useful life of 14 weeks, Infinity displays can easily last for two years and more. And that’s just one of the benefits of the range.”