Marketing Gone Mad

Below is another installment of “Marketing Gone Mad.” According to an Advertising Age article titled, “Ads to Be Printed on Grocery Store Conveyor Belts,” supermarkets are starting to allow companies with the opportunity to put ads on conveyer belts. The story noted:

"‘Conveyor belts have never been on anybody's radar screen for marketing,’ said Frank Cox, president-CEO of EnVision Marketing Group, a Little Rock, Ark., firm with a patented system to print digital, photo-quality ads directly on conveyor belts. ‘But a store with eight to 10 checkout lanes, well, you're talking about 100 square feet of wasted ad real estate.’”

I am absolutely dumbfounded with this idea. Putting ads on conveyor belts at stores definitely puts marketing at the saturation point for customers.

When going to the supermarket, a lot of mothers will bring their children along with them. If your company markets to either women or children, advertising on a conveyor belt will offer amazing branding opportunities. I understand this can be a huge benefit for certain companies.

Here is the problem. In the supermarket, customers are inundated with ads from a plethora of different products. By the time they reach the conveyor belt, most people are tired of looking at marketing material. They are not interested in reading any more ads. I would be concerned about the ROI if a company spends thousands of dollar marketing in this program.