POSM (also called POPM or POP) stands for “Point of Sale Materials”. These are advertising materials that are used to communicate product information to the consumers at the point of sale. There are many types of POSMs which are used by companies for their advertising campaigns. Some of them includes Posters, Dangler, Dummy Boxes, Shelf Branding, Shelf Talker, Leaflets & Leaflets Dispenser, Wobblers etc. All these POSMs are deployed on POP or POS.
We will discuss about POSM types in detail. But first we need to understand what is POP or POS.
POS stands for Point of Sale & is considered when the discussion is from the view of seller. This is a point where seller used to sell his products to customers.
POP stands for point of purchase & is considered when the discussion is from the view of customer.
This means POS & POP are the same thing but are used differently by sellers & consumers respectively.
Types of POSM:
There are no fix types, shapes & sizes of POSMs in the market however can be categorized basis their application in retail.
Posters: Posters are signage that is pasted on a flat vertical surface such as a wall. They generally come in the following sizes: Large (24” X 36”), Medium (18” X 24”), Small (11” X 17”), & A4. Depending upon the quality/brand/theme & other classifications printing quality can be decided by companies.
Danglers: Danglers are hanging signage that is "dangled" from the ceiling of a retail store. At its simplest, a Dangler can just be rectangular piece of thick paper with SALE written on it. On the other end, it can be a 3-dimensional model of the product.
Standees: Standee is a self-standing display promoting a communication/campaign/scheme. It is generally placed outside of an outlet to grab attention of the passerby. Standees are of different types such as floor standee, rollup standee, cut out standee, canvas standee, MDF standee, LED Standee, 3D standee etc.
Bunting: Small stickers/flags/ribbons tagged together with thread in a sequence keeping uniform distance is known as bunting in POSM terminology. Bunting is usually a POSM used on doors or windows.
Other PoSMs: Other major types of POSMs are stickers, wobblers, LED window displays, levitating units, acrylic highlighter displays, etc. All these material are used in promoting the communications for brands.