HOME GENTER MERGHANT

BILL FISHMAN

Bill Fishman & Afliliates

11650 lberia Place

San Dieoo. Ca.92128

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opportunity to maximize sales, there are many in the home center and building material industry who slr// neglect to utilize our most economical selling tool SIGNING!

Consider first permanent in-store signing. With the similarities in interior store designs, mass merchandisers have learned that today's mobile, fast paced shopper sometimes needs to be reminded of which store they are shopping in. The store name should be prominent on the perimeter walls. Boldly lettered wall and hanging signs must also identify departments and product categories. Even more important, the wall that the customers see when checking out should contain messages that give them the confidence to make their big ticket decisions. Merchants today are using that wall space to sell their company creed, credit plans, delivery programs and the company's liberal guarantee and exchange policies.

Amateurish handmade signing is sometimes worse than no signing at all. It cheapens the merchandise. Don't be fooled by the carefully hand lettered printed signs you find in today's chain and warehouse operations. Theirs is not a slip shod production. Those signs are very carefully conceived and professionally lettered to connote low price and value-not cheap quality.

There are a number of different types of machines that can economically make showcard signing. The most common equipment is either a flatbed press utilizing handset type or the Reynold's PrintA-Sign which operates similarly to the old penny arcade machine that punched out your name on a strip of metal.

In developing a signing program, the choice of equipment, however, is far less important than the creating of the systems and procedures to make sure that the signs are ordered, produced, delivered to the store, installed at the proper location, and removed when the event or pricing has expired. When promotional signing is ordered for advertised specials, consider ordering even more impressive signing for the step-up merchandise.

Standard sign sizes are derived from a full sheet sign material that is 22" x 28". Typical signing therefore is: 22" x 28", 14" x22", ll" x 14",7" xll",5Yz" x7", and 3Vz" x 5V2 ". Choosing the correct size for the sign is not always an easy chore. While some leaders in our industry are using such phrases as "The merchandise is the message," others are still oversigning stores and allowing the signing to hide the merchandise. Order your large merchandise signing with discretion. Remember, if everything shouts nothing shouts.

Just as in advertising, sign copy should sell the benefits as well as list the features. Keep it brief, but make it punchy enough so that the value overshadows the price. Most importantly never Put the sign making authority into the hands of

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