According to us at Point, Value Engineering, as a methodological concept, condones the substitution of materials and processes for cost effective alternatives without disturbing product functionality and, where possible, drive innovation.
Value Engineering in POSM – Marketing and Financial benefits
INSIGHT
Both a marketing and business advantage
Did you know, the Value Engineering of Point of Sale Merchandise (POSM) units has both Marketing and Financial benefits to a business? From in-store marketing advantage to serving broader business goals like budget reductions, Value Engineering is a multi-faceted, complex process in POSM development. It requires expertise in materials, local market competencies, available technologies and structural design.
What is Value Engineering of POSM?
Why?
Because there is often a better way of doing something to make a greater impact. The idea is to not just deliver a better marketing campaign asset, but deliver it whilst saving cost and time without compromising the end product.
How?
Well, that’s not a straight-forward question with a straightforward answer…
The Approach
In POSM design you have two variants that differentiate your value engineering objectives. You either have – relatively speaking – a structure that has never existed before, or you have an existing structure explains Chris O'Brien, Point's Industrial Design Manager
Industrial Designers have 2 approaches for Value Engineering:
- Use their expertise to guide the development of a new structure giving value to the brand campaign
- Or, employ value engineering through sourcing new technologies and ways of thinking then apply that to existing structures in order to modify the way they’re manufactured.
Both of these value engineering approaches will result in either cost savings, brand visibility or other campaign objectives set by the client
What Marketers Need to Know
Concise Brief
Good vs. Bad: A concise brief with outlined campaign objective enables manufacturing expertise to be effectively and efficiently implemented A poor brief with an unclear objective is highly likely to increase costs and lead time, which negatively impacts the spec, costing, sampling, manufacturing, logistics and implementation time.
Realistic Timelines
Longer lead times and planning means greater efficiency and cost management. Time constraints can influence and limit material choice and impressive, complex designs. Installation/execution time is also a factor considered during Value Engineering by Industrial Designers. A temporary FSU should take under 10 minutes to install in-store. If longer, you risk the asset being rejected and wasted.
Cost Implications
Align product design (unit & packaging) and production to a pre-set budget. Keep note, the overall cost of a campaign can be impacted by time constraints, product quality and the choice of material and design. All which also determine weight and size therefore cost during the logistical phase.
Know Quantity
An idea of the quantity of units is critical. Product designers will then be able to advise the feasibility and best suited specifications. Quantity will ultimately impact production, logistics, storage and implementation time.
Know Budget
Budgets are brand determined at the beginning of the project and for greater efficiency should be communicated at briefing stage. What’s your budget? The dreaded question, but the answer can save a lot of wasted time on redesigning to fit the mysterious budget.
ROI - Return on Innovation
To simply make modifications to things or to replace one thing with another, is not innovation.
Modifications need to result in a positive ROI to be considered as innovation.
Innovation begins with out-of-the-box thinking and without new ways of thinking, there’ll be no new developments, no new products and therefore your marketing cycle (and your business) will cease to exist.
If you don’t like change – that’s great, but you’ll dislike irrelevance even more.
Now we ask: “Do we fix the problem, or do we identify the problem before it becomes a problem?”. That’s innovation.