Naturkost Oase: POS Marketing in Practice at PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION

In mid-October, PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION (PDC), organized by Fachverband Medienproduktion e.V. (f:mp) and drupa, will take place! The name says it all, meaning that the focus of this trade show will be on all aspects of printing and digitization within this field. As part of this exhibition and congress event mix, the special format “Highlight Guide” will present best practices and creative applications. 

POS Marketing at the Organic Food Store “Naturkost Oase”

One of these highlight projects is going to be “POS marketing in practice – staging of organic food store ‘Naturkost Oase’ with all associated POS advertising media and digital signage”. A pop-up store of “Naturkost Oase” will be set up at the trade show to demonstrate the PDC visitors in which areas of POS marketing digital printing can be used. Just like in the local organic food store in Zell an der Mosel, which is run by the Maaß family, the retailer’s pop-up store at the exhibition center will also use Canon’s C170 series digital printing press. This digital press supplies the store in Zoll an der Mosel with a range of print products – be it A6 fruit and vegetable signs, flyers and posters in various sizes, or even brochures. Visitors of our trade show will be able to see for themselves how easily such print products can be designed and produced on demand. Representatives from PDC exhibitor FKS will additionally present further options on how to finish and refine various print products at the “Naturkost Oase” booth. 

Since POS activities nowadays also increasingly have a cross-media approach, this highlight project also illustrates the advantages of digital signage. For this purpose, our exhibition partner Ruhrkraft will show how to make the customer journey more attractive and appealing by using digital media content as a source of advertising and information. This includes, for example, the possibility to provide customers with further information about the product by scanning it, or the positive effect of digital display posters that can show time-of-day-dependent messages to customers at the right time. 

Interview with Rüdiger Maaß and Marcel Maaß

When we interviewed f:mp managing director Rüdiger Maaß and his son Marcel Maaß, they explained the positive results they could draw from their POS marketing activities to date. 

drupa: In the organic food store, you use many different print products for POS marketing: why was the use of print indispensable for you?

Print is still the only multisensory medium. With print, we are able to generate a high level of trust in our brand. Of course, this only works in conjunction with digital media – it’s the mix that counts. In addition, our organic food store is not just a place for (anonymous) convenience shopping, but also for advice and guidance on all aspects of healthy nutrition. It provides a relaxed and interactive shopping experience. The print products contribute to this and offer a high utility value in the extension of the advice to the customer’s home.

drupa: You have high requirements for creative POS marketing: can you briefly summarize these and explain what is important to meet them?

Well, it’s very important that technology has to adapt to our needs. Because in general, we develop ideas that have to be implemented in any case. It is print that has enormous potential to offer here. However, it is also the case that knowledge of technical possibilities also inspires creativity. So you can say: knowing what works inspires creativity and knowing that it works also opens up creative freedom. Furthermore, it is important that we work with service providers who understand the system and do not just sell us what they can do themselves.

drupa: The digital press allows you to be very flexible and creative: what insights have you already gained?

Our Canon ImagePress allows us to create a large part of the print products. One important insight is that creativity in implementation does not work with the machine alone – in many areas, flexible finishing is still necessary. Interdisciplinary collaboration is the key when it comes to print. Another insight is that digital printing applications change the requirements as you are much more flexible in the design. We can try out posters or offers in run one and adapt them to the customer’s wishes without any problems.

drupa: Were there any surprises or anything you hadn’t expected?

Yes, definitely. We have become much faster and can react just in time.

drupa: How do your intensive activities in POS marketing affect communication with your customers, their satisfaction and ultimately sales? 

In the area of individual offers, we can of course prove that secondary placements through print advertising, for example, have a higher sell-through. We also notice that this increases customer awareness. However, it is much more important that these measures are unobtrusive and serve more as an orientation and information platform for the customer. This creates trust and ensures regular customers. We are much more interested in this than in short-term sales.

Thanks a lot to Rüdiger Maaß and Marcel Maaß for their insights. We are already looking forward to experiencing the entrepreneurs’ POS marketing for ourselves very soon at PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION. 

As mentioned before, other exciting projects can be seen there as part of the “Highlight Guide”. In addition to the project “Packaging Interpretation: ’Natural cosmetics and sustainable print finishing’”, OKI will present the “GIN Project” and HP will also be there to present the “Haribo social game ‘Bärchen Lauf’ – new development packaging concept with print finishing”. Visitors can get a closer look at two other projects: “Print moves – the power of cards” and “12 // 12 a collaborative print // art project”.

Are you going to join us at PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION and what are you looking forward to there in particular? Maybe a presentation from our “Highlight Guide” portfolio?