All,

I am curious to know what the display habits are among those of you who have showrooms. Do you tend to organize your displays by product category, color or material?

I have found that my tendancy is to display products by color stories and material. Color-story displays present a more organized and eye-appealing look to a showroom. I realize this is not the most convenient display method for my customer, but it introduces them to more of our products and personalization methods in their search for what they really want. I believe there needs to be a nice balance between eye-appeal and customer convenience.

I don't stand hard and fast on one particular method, as I also have an area of mixed colors and material in a baby gift area.

David,

I don't have a showroom so I really cannot help, but I think Roy Brewer has written a few articles about this in various magazines. Hopefully he will chime in.

Dave

I never really thought about it, interesting.

I tend to go by product. Office, subgrouped by desk bars, door signs, badges, etc. I use a merchandiser every few months to give an improved look to what I set up. It is amazing what a good one can do.

Like other creative things merchandisers run the gamut. From poor and all setups looking alike, to different and beautiful each time. Some merchandisers go stale, so if you use one keep your eyes open for that. If they take a long time to get to you, that is OK if the work looks good, it is usually creative thinking time. If they come seemingly unprepaired, they are usually going stale and the results will show big time.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Sub Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

David:

Roy Brewer authored a five-part series on merchandise displays which were published in EJ.

The entire 5-part series titled "Is That All Ya Got?" is available for free viewing on line on our web site www.engraversjournal.com.

Enjoy!

Mike,

I am familiar with Roy's article, but was just trying to stimulate a little discussion on the subject of display methods.

I appreciate you making available that valuable article to those who have not had a chance to read it.

I have the same questions you do but I'll tell how our showroom is laid out.

We have 1000 - 1500 square foot showroom. When you walk in we have shelves on the left side of the store with trophies. They are the type of shelves like Walmart or a grocer would have. We have the "golf" area, "football" , "cheer" etc... There is nothing separating them but a little space on the shelves in between. On them we have from a small figure on a base to resins to large trophies, keychains, whatever we sell that matches that topic. There are two rows of them, double sided shelves. On one wall, we have all different plaque sizes and styles. (subbed, engraved, high cost, low cost etc...) On the other side of the store we have shelves with specialty resins such as fire dept, military,etc. One shelf area with all the different sublimation items available. Around the outer areas of the store we have a few odd shelves with offerings such as pen sets, letter openers, desk nameplates and things along that line. Hope this helps! I know I left out some things but I'm at home and have that CRS problem! John