STUDY: 1995 POP SPENDING PASSED $12 BILLION

JAMES TENSER

CORONADO, Calif. -- Expenditures for permanent and temporary in-store displays and in-store media and signs grew 7.7% in 1995 to surpass the $12 billion mark, says a new study released by the Point-of-Purchase Advertising Institute, Englewood, N.J.

According to the POPAI Market Size and Structure study, brand marketers spent 42% of that sum, vs. retailers, who spent 49%, and agencies, which spent the remaining 9%.

At last month's POPAI 1996 Annual Industry Conference here, Gerald Meyers, principal of Meyers Research Center, New York, and Lily Lev-Glick, senior department manager of research for POPAI, presented a first-ever study that compared spending in the in-store communications industry with other major categories of marketing media.

According to the researchers, the POP industry is currently growing faster than either national newspaper advertising, which grew 5.6% in the 12 months ended Sept. 27, 1995, or network television advertising, which grew just 2.8% in the same period. In sheer size, POP spending, at $12.02 billion, compares with that of network TV, at $11.89 billion, or newspaper ad spending, at $11.75 billion, for the latest available 12-month period, the researchers conclude.

However, network television is but a fraction of total TV spending, which was measured at $29.94 billion a year ago. And newspapers are just one piece of the print advertising pie, which totaled $22.30 billion. That would put POP in third place among measured media, ahead of radio, which pulled in $1.87 billion in annual revenues.

The researchers found that the largest fraction of POP spending, 40%, was directed toward permanent displays, followed closely by in-store media and signs, at 39%. Just 21% of spending went toward temporary displays, the study said.

In compiling this profile of the POP industry, the researchers first identified nearly 220,000 companies that spanned over 90 SIC codes. More than 13,000 of these were contacted to determine their involvement in the POP industry. The projections were developed from their survey responses.

The researchers concluded that nearly 14,000 companies either make or sell POP products to end-users. However, only 9% of those companies derive their total revenues from this activity. The average company in the POP business derived 39% of its volume from finished POP.