The Point of Purchase, or P-O-P, is
the instance a consumer arrives at the shelves to select a product of want or
need. This moment is very important to brands as it can either solidify or
persuade consumers away from competitors. Most research focuses on the affect
advertising has on the P-O-P. Also, traditional P-O-P is often times affected
by the product shelf placement due to brand-market negotiations. But, at what
point does traditional product placement on the shelf and branding influence on consumers’ P-O-P psychology? Also, how has and will the mobile device
culture change the consumer's experience at the P-O-P?
These questions are what I intend to
research for my final project. I believe the psychological implications of the
traditional P-O-P are in transition due to the new purchasing and interactive
capabilities of mobile devices. I want to pull on best practices of the new
mobile campaigns performed from major brands such as Procter & Gamble in
order to see how this is affecting and changing the P-O-P experience. I intend
to look at how QR-Codes are being integrated into these digital campaigns as
well as into the traditional marketing aspects (branding, OOH, & print
advertising). Moreover, I hope to research how mobile app designers are
utilizing GPS as a means of delivering discounts, advertisements, etc. to
consumer the moment they walk through the market door. My intent is to discover
the psychological and ethical implications of these new P-O-P mechanisms and
how advertisers are finding synergy between the traditional and innovative.
For my final research project, I want
to see how P-O-P is negotiated in the business, digital and the psychological
spaces. The mobile culture has had an incredible leap due to the smart phone creation
and it is time for more research to be done in this area. Also, the
intersection of the digital and physical space in the context of mobile culture
could not be better observed than at the P-0-P.
