Case Study: (Header) You walk into a grocery store. Breathing, touching, smelling. The sense that bombard your first steps when you walk into a grocery store. There is no mistake that the piece of local fresh cantaloupe you see when you first walk into a store is placed in perfect view, especially with it laying so elegantly next to those local fuji apples. Their colorful and contrasting aroma's filling the space and displayed just for the viewers pleasure..
With point of purchase advertising has become "responsible for half of the purchase decisions made in store" (HOI, p.141), researching how this influence is invented is the final step to the producers placement. As lowenstein points out, "The medium shapes the message"; keep that in mind when understanding how the producer is to claim the space of the consumer (Merrill & Lowenstein, p.18). It is the idea that the "confluence of message, customers, and products or service" (Lucus & Pensky, p.371) serves directly proportional to POP communication. And This POP communication is created by the "retailer or manufacturer and involves [a] store that communicates to the customers about product assortment, quality, and price. In ways that are both convenient to the customer and enhancing" to the store and its purchases (Cross, p.142).
To begin the process of POP advertising, stores first have to look at the how to invent the space that will surround the consumer. "Invention can be seen as either gathering, combining, and refining existing materials or generating new ideas" (point of purchase, 145) The development of Point-of-Purchase (POP) advertising is to help influence the audience. "POP can not only serves as information but also work ... [as an] informative and persuasive interaction with the customer" (Bell, p.143). "POP communications can be found anywhere from decals on the selling floor to danglers hanging from the ceilings". If you think about this concept from the consumers perspective, you might think of signs in the store that say fresh produce, or local farm caught or brand new. These are tools used and invented by producers to enhance the selling experience to their consumers. They are creating the space that surrounds the visitor when they walk through the door. As Dickenson and Maugh note "a well-rounded understanding of visual rhetoric needs to address the embodiment of visual rhetoric" (Dickenson, p.260).
In other words, when addressing the process of POP, you notice that it is the "embodiment of visual rhetoric in the everyday-built environment". The producer will have to intend to build the environment in which it hopes its consumer will occupy. But a well built environment can lead to higher percentage purchase decisions.
