Dairy brands continue to be an important driver of store visits and retail food sales. From traditional staples such as milk and butter to new and innovative takes on yogurt and fermented milk beverages, dairy resonates with a wide spectrum of consumers seeking health and wellness benefits, indulgence and unique flavor combinations. This brings about new revenue sources for retailers and a competitive edge for dairy brands.

Recently full-fat dairy products have made a comeback, gaining ground with consumers who are adopting diets such as keto and paleo that embrace the richness of full-fat foods.

With this new lease on life, the dairy category has gone way beyond white milk to flavored milks, enriched milks, drinking yogurts, fermented milks, spoonable yogurts and products still being developed. The dairy refrigeration case offers a huge opportunity for dairy brands to increase sales and profit from the renewed interest, and there’s no shortage of ways for these brands to merchandise their dairy foods to increase foot traffic to their branded refrigerators and freezers and to drive sales. An attractive looking dairy brand-owned commercial cooler or freezer is a sure-fire way of pulling consumers in.

Be bold with graphics

Capturing customer attention is the No. 1 job of dairy brands, and a cleverly designed graphic can tempt shoppers into trying a new product or making an impulse purchase they weren’t planning on making. This lesson can be applied to any retail environment, but it’s especially important in convenience stores and supermarkets, to avoid those long rows of identical refrigerators or freezer merchandisers.

Brand messaging is an essential part of product packaging; why not extend the concept to the refrigeration merchandiser, easily flagging or identifying the product inside? A freezer or refrigerator merchandiser can and should be a unique reflection of brand messaging, and dairy manufacturers shouldn’t underestimate the importance of visually merchandising the refrigeration casing of their chilled and frozen foods.

The role of color

Color is a key component of visual marketing that can influence consumer choices. Bright colors such as orange and red radiate energy, while cooler greens and blues relax and slow down the pace. If the objective is to attract initial attention to a new product, bright colors can help achieve this goal. If a brand or business wishes to associate its products with organic and grass-fed, using soothing earth-friendly tones such as green or blue might be a better strategy. 

Certain colors carry strong connections to specific ideas and evoke different feelings in people, which dairy brands can use to enhance their merchandising.

Another way to employ color is to look at where the commercial refrigeration merchandiser is located. In areas saturated with a certain color, choosing contrasting colors will help a refrigeration display stand out.

Visibility is key

People “eat with their eyes” first or sometimes their “eyes are bigger than their stomachs,” so it’s key that the refrigeration interiors are brightly lit to showcase the items contained within. Make sure your branded refrigerated merchandisers are illuminated with light-emitting diodes, (LED), which saturates products with an even application of directional light. At the same time, LED lighting reduces glare and renders colors accurately, packing a high-contrast punch. High-efficiency double-paneled glass doors ensure nothing stands between customers and a perfectly showcased view of the products inside.

Remember the retailing maxim: Eye level is “buy level.” A well-curated and strategically placed inventory means brands should position best-selling products at eye level. This makes it easy for shoppers to find the products they buy most often. Capitalize on this by placing new products close to these best sellers increasing the likelihood that they are seen. This is also a great opportunity to tie in a graphic highlighting the new product in the well-trafficked commercial refrigeration merchandiser.

Get them coming — and going

When shoppers walk through the doors, an eye-catching display up front should make them slow down. Otherwise, they may rush in and buy as little as they planned to. Smart retailers work with dairy brands and set up large seasonal displays, to wow customers and get them to stop, look at, or try.

At the end of their visit, you can count on last-minute buying decisions to be made, often with little thought. Here at the point of sale, refrigeration displays are responsible for 80% of the buying decision. These are impulse buys, so work with retailers to keep small and ready-to-eat or drink items such as new on-the-go dairy beverages in this position. It’s a hot spot to carry cold drinks and highlight promotions and new products you want to introduce to customers.

To introduce new products to consumers in any outlet, there’s no substitute for brightly lit, branded glass door freezer merchandisers to showcase a wide array of dairy products. And to help impulse sales, nothing beats a branded commercial merchandiser placed strategically next to the point of purchase, where customers can be tempted to try a new entrant in the grab and go category.