Richard Poyant, Poyant Signs

In today’s competitive retail environment, the strength and relevance of your brand image is more important than ever. Your on premise signage plays a major role in what your customer’s perceive of your brand and your business, and many retailers fail to take advantage of the power of visual communications. Keeping your image fresh, bright and eye catching will attract new business and instill confidence that you understand how to deliver results.

Retail developers are challenged with creating a unique and memorable shopping environment in order to stay relevant amongst the growing number of shopping centers, malls, and outlets. Today’s customers are looking for an experience, not just a new pair of shoes. Your brand tells a story, your story, and stories are experience retold. What story is your brand telling? Cool, fun, hip, serious, tired, boring. Where would you go hang out and buy those new shoes? Branding matters, signage matters.

Strong visual branding is the most cost effective way to increase your brand recognition amongst retailers and consumers. When considering different signage options, keep these tips in mind:

• Keep it consistent, visible and legible – Your “streetscape” is your “first impression” and it must project the positive image you want the public to have of your shopping center.

• Tell your own unique story – Consider what it is that your clients, visitors, and customers value about your location, tenant mix, unique property features and what it is that they will like about the products and services that you offer them and leverage those characteristics in the new design. This is how to keep your brand alive and flourishing.

• Design –Your design must make a powerful statement that supports and enhances the customer’s experience and the story you are telling.

Your updated “streetscape” will make thousands of impressions every day creating top of the mind awareness. A well-developed and well-executed branding program will create a visitor experience that your customer desires and it will tell your story.

Case Study: When High Rock Development approached Poyant in November of 2015, they were looking for a dramatic way to leverage the high visibility and traffic exposure for their new shopping center in Plymouth, Mass.

The new development sits on 53 acres located off Rte. 80 and includes a 300,000 s/f shopping center that will include a mix of retail and restaurants. The project also includes significant roadway improvements, and work on utilities, drainage and parking lot construction.

Poyant’s project team collaborated with High Rock Development, C3 Commercial Construction, and Prellwitz Chilinski Associates to develop and implement a branding program to enhance the new center.

The goals for the project included:

1. Create a look that conveys an exciting shopping experience.

2. Provide advertising capacity for the number of tenants in the shopping center.

3. Work within a cost-effective budget.

4. High durability and low maintenance of the new branding elements.

With these goals in mind, the Poyant branding team developed a fresh design concept that reflects the center’s location in Southeastern Massachusetts, an area well-known for its cranberry bogs and vacation travelers to Cape Cod. The design scheme incorporated the look, feel and color theme of the Cape Cod cranberry harvests.

The branding package included the fabrication and installation of a new externally illuminated pylon sign with 2” deep routed dimensional graphics for the center’s name, and a large double sided cabinet with multiple tenant spaces. Such advertising space for retail tenants is important to the success of their businesses. The pylon sign also features a state-of-the-art LED lighting system that offers the brightest, most energy efficient illumination available today.

The masonry on the base of the pylon sign matches the building to tie in the overall architecture of the center. The installation of the new footings for the pylon sign was challenging due to the uneven grade and roadway construction, however, through extensive coordination and planning, our installation team was able to set the foundation as required to maintain the proper wind loading for the new sign.

The branding package also included four sets of dimensional letters for the curved or “crescent” stone walls at the center’s entrance ways on Plympton Rd. and Carver Rd. The graphics are 2” deep fabricated aluminum letters pin mounted 1” off of the stone walls. Each curved stone wall had a slightly different radius making each set of letters custom for each application.

The project was completed earlier this month, on-time and on-budget and is considered a success by all involved.

Richard Poyant is the president of Poyant Signs, New Bedford, Mass.