The Valley Group

Superdrug: Breaking Convention

August 7, 2023

In the highly competitive world of health and beauty retail, creating an impactful in-store experience is key to connecting with consumers and growing product sales. Visual disruption involves breaking away from traditional norm by captivating customer interest with innovative and attention-grabbing display solutions. In this article, we explore how Valley are working together with global pharmaceutical giant Bayer, successfully using visual disruption to transform display design and reshape the way the brand connects with its customers.

Disrupting shelf space

When Superdrug took the decision to remove branded headers from shelf displays, Bayer had a challenge- how to make their products stand out from competition with reduced visibility.

The solution? An innovative approach to space planning.

By creating a 2-tier product holding using the space which would previously have been occupied by a header, we disrupted the linear run on a shelf, using scale to step outside the norm and break into shoppers’ consciousness.

Whilst also doubling stock holding, the design was able to act as a beacon for the brand, with side fins creating stand out brand visibility for shoppers as they walked down the store aisle.

Creative storytelling

Summer is a key sales period for Clarityn, Bayer’s market leading hay fever relief products. By breaking away from traditional norms in display design, we created an eye-catching display based on a ‘Festival’ theme to surprise and engage shoppers.

Being bold with design and shape, with the willingness to compromise stock holding, can offer the freedom to deliver impactful creative solutions, sparking curiosity from the shopper. We also supported Bayer on their social media strategy for the campaign, with our in-house team creating engaging content driving competition entries whilst also increasing footfall into store. By putting the display at the centre of the narrative on social, we were able to build customer saliency with the campaign increasing the likelihood of them shopping the product once in-store.

Scale for impact

Uniformity of displays creates visual complacency with the shopper. They don’t see brands, creative or product and can often become immune to what’s in front of them.

Considering most shoppers approach an in-aisle display side on, by disrupting the space using aisle fins is a great way to capture shopper attention. However, retailer guidelines are strict and this opportunity isn’t always available for brands.

By combining category way finding information, Valley worked together with Bayer and Superdrug to create oversized display fins, guiding shoppers to products by calling out categories such as Energy, Sleep and Women’s Health. By featuring a QR code on the fins, shoppers can scan to see the full range of products available on Superdrug’s website, with Bayer products featuring predominantly and also book services such as a blood test. This offers Bayer insight into shopper behaviour, whilst also offering live visibilty of campaign complience.

Breaking boundries

Throughout all our projects, scale is a key element in approach to design, ensuring every inch of space is maximised to deliver impact and strong brand presence in-store. By continually challenging convention and retailer guidelines, we are able to elevate brands and product within competitive store environments. In this example for Berocca, we created a giant tube display, grabbing shoppers’ attention with a unique and playful design. With some clever engineering we were also able to double the stock holding of the unit, offering space for 120 products across 5 flavours.

In today’s retail landscape, creating visual disruption within multi branded retailers is about much more than just creating eye-catching displays. It represents an evolution in thinking outside of the box. By pushing the boundaries in space and scale, whilst leveraging social media opportunities, we continue to innovate for our brands, to ensure we create stand out storytelling moments, creating valuable opportunities to connect with shoppers.

We can help you deliver the best shopper experiences. Get in contact to see how enquiries@thevalleygroup.com