Maverick Marketplace Up and Running

The Maverick Marketplace, opened last month in Windsor Locks, Conn., by the Windsor Marketing Group, is an innovative retail laboratory created to provide the agency’s clients with an alpha testing program for in-store signage campaigns before they roll out.

Set up as a mock store complete with wall décor, aisles, shelving and a checkout area, among other features, the lab can demonstrate how a client’s in-store signage program would work in a real-world environment and test the effectiveness of a wide array of signage options, including danglers, perpendicular tags, channel strips, easel cards, 3D end cap enhancers, end cap enhancers, stanchions, hanging signs, standees, blades, mini-blades and end cap volumizers.

The Windsor Marketing Group plans to employ Maverick Marketplace to derive both qualitative and quantitative data from lab surveys and focus groups. Testing can determine if a signage program has the right messages, process motivators, dynamic pull and creative saliency. The company believes that research from the facility will enable clients to create in-store signage programs to help shoppers find products, identify product information and activate purchases --all without the need for a sales associate.

“Maverick Marketplace will allow us to track supermarket shopping patterns and test our signage programs before they go live,” explained Windsor marketing coordinator Colin Campbell. “The research will unveil the true drivers of an in-store purchase.”

As well as testing programs, the Maverick Marketplace serves as a showcase of the latest Windsor signage solutions, among them seasonal and promotional programming, Market Flex merchandising plans, and the agency’s proprietary Impact Picture Signs (IPS), a high-definition print process that, according to the company, provides greater visual impact, increases purchase frequency, drives impulse purchases and boosts basket size.

“We are driven to find unconventional solutions to everyday challenges retailers face when communicating with their consumers at the store level,” said Windsor Marketing Group CEO Kevin Armata, who expressed his hope that the lab would “become a touchstone for retail testing and help us capture the relationship between signage and sales for our retail clients.”

To arrange a tour of the facility, call Robert Bernarduci at 860-888-2270.