What should sign makers do to tackle slowdown in the industry?
It’s a fact that the ongoing economic slowdown in the country has its effect on the signage industry. What we observe is that many leading brand owners have cut down their spending on advertising and promotional campaigns. It seems like they have postponed or put on hold their advertising campaigns for the time being. Or they have shortened the durations of their existing campaigns. It means there is a visible slowdown in the industry.
When we drive on expressways, it’s common to see giant billboards standing in row on roadsides. Nowadays, many of these billboards are found to be blank in many places. An industry source says that brand owners have reduced around 15 percent of their spending on outdoor promotional campaigns in the past few months, which in turn resulted in approximately 30 percent drop in the overall occupancy in outdoor sign spaces across the country.
At this juncture, sign makers must decide what they should do strategically to tackle the situation. It’s time for them to respond with new initiatives to revive the lost momentum in business and accelerate it. For that, they should step forward to offer their customers options of affordable, acceptable and effective solutions, laced with some innovations. Whatever the situation is, innovations can hardly be ignored.
Brand owners may cut down or put on hold their spending on advertising. But they will never completely stop advertising as it is an integral part of marketing their products and brands. And display signage ad is more economical and impactful medium than any other platforms, such as TV, internet, newspapers, smart-phones that require active participation. Sign makers must offer brand owners signage solutions, which are fewer but more impactful, not required for more spaces or locations.
Other than innovative print solutions, it’s time for sign makers to look for more advanced machines as well as ecological-friendly solutions, which are shown at international expos and can be brought to India. This is another way to cope with the slowdown in the market, because sooner or later all corporate companies will be totally shifting to ecological-friendly solutions only. One other hand, festivities always accelerate the business of sign makers. The market had picked up its pace a little during Diwali. So, be prepared to pick up pace in the upcoming festive season, even if not in the way it was before.
In this issue, we cover two cities of Punjab in our Region Exclusive column—Ludhiana & Amritsar. Sign makers and suppliers in these cities are doing good business as their production facilities are well equipped with advanced and upgraded machines, and they are busy on big projects for big clients around Punjab and beyond. Many of them engage in production of unconventional sign solutions for unique projects in the hospitality sector.
We see a vibrant signage market in the region in future.
Sonal Khurana
sonal@smediagroup.in