Grow Your Business with Commercial Digital Signage, NOT with TV!
Why can’t I use the TV for my business? A common question we have heard for many times. In most cases, when we are discussing about TV or commercial digital signage for business, we are referring to the brick-and-mortar businesses. A brick-and mortar is a traditional form of business that operates in a physical store or office. Some of the examples are bakery, clothing store, shopping mall, bank, restaurant, coffee shop and post office.
Many store owners choose to use TVs at their storefronts or in their stores to display advertising messages. In the short run, TV might be an acceptable tool for retail advertising. However, your business does not run for days or weeks only. As time passes, your TV display will bring more disadvantages than advantages to your business.
Why do you need to grow your business with commercial digital signage, and not with TV? What are the differences between commercial digital signage and TV?
Infographic By Big Screen Media 1. Consumer TV is for home entertainment.
The TVs that sit in our living rooms are consumer TVs. Consumer TVs are engineered to be used at home. All features of the TVs are designed to improve our home entertainment experience.
Business owners might argue that there is no difference between a consumer TV and a commercial digital signage since both of them can be used to display content. We urge you to think again.
Do you spend 12 hours or 24 hours per day watching television at home? It is the most obvious difference between personal use and commercial use. Have you ever wondered why bakery uses the larger commercial oven, but housewife uses the smaller home oven? This is because bakery needs to bake more cakes in a more economical way.
Business owners might need to display their advertising content or store information non-stop for more than 10 hours a day. Some even need to have their displays to run continuously for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Business owners need to understand that consumer TVs are not designed to operate continuously for a long hour. If you choose to run it anyway in your store, you might need to buy yourself a new display in two or three years. Even if you are lucky enough to have your TV to function longer than expected, you will still encounter some limitations in using consumer TV for your retail advertising.
2. Commercial digital signage has a brighter screen.
The effectiveness of your retail advertising is influenced by several factors. One of the most important factors is the visibility of your display content. The visibility might be affected by the lighting condition of your store. There could be ambient light, strong sunlight or glare that might affect the viewing experience.
No matter how creative your content or your campaign is, you will fail to attract your audience if your audience is having a hard time to view your display content clearly.
Since consumer TVs are designed to be used in the living rooms, they do not have the suitable brightness level to tackle issues caused by different lighting conditions. If you pay attention to consumer TVs’ advertisements or promotions, brightness is never a product highlight for consumer TVs.
On the other hand, digital signage products highlight their feature of higher brightness. Digital signage products offer different levels of brightness depending on your needs. For example, if you want to put more efforts in your street display windows, you can choose any digital signage that provides higher and adjustable brightness level.
3. Commercial digital signage makes portrait mode possible.
Creativity is very important in creating a successful advertising campaign. Business owners are trying their very best to produce the most effective ways in increasing foot traffic to their stores. Sometimes, business owners will need to display their contents in portrait or vertical mode.
Years before the introduction of commercial digital signage, clothing stores faced a tough challenge in displaying and merchandising their clothes. Clothing stores understand that they cannot simply place their clothes on shelves. Customers want to see, feel, and touch the clothes, from top to bottom. Hence, they decided to use mannequins for their clothing displays.
The mannequin is an effective tool in displaying clothes in vertical form, but it is not cost effective. Every single mannequin can only be used to display a set of clothes. Owners cannot afford to place a large number of mannequins in their stores due to the limited spaces and budgets they have.
Some clothing stores tried to leverage the digital viewing experience by using TVs to display their clothes in digital formats. The experience was fresh. Although customers could not touch the fabric directly, they were enjoying the digital viewing experience. TVs can display more than a set of clothes at one time, and the high-definition resolution of TVs can be very engaging.
However, issues came much faster. Beside of the issue of long operating hours, clothing stores found that the landscape or horizontal orientation is not the best display format for clothes. The display looks cramped unless you have a very large screen.
Commercial digital signage is the best solution in choosing your preferred display orientation. Unlike consumer TVs, commercial digital signages are engineered to allow users to change their orientation. Some digital signage products also offer a split screen mode.
Technology is enhancing creativity. Commercial digital signage helps business owners to unleash their creativity. Embrace it. Do not let your TVs kill your creativity.
4. Commercial digital signage is more durable.
Generally, the cost of a commercial digital signage is higher than the cost of a consumer TV. One of the reasons of such higher cost is the increased durability of the commercial digital signage.
The level of durability determines how long a product can remain functional. First, a commercial digital signage has a longer lifespan than a consumer TV. A commercial digital signage can also operate non-stop for a longer hour.
Second, it will cause a screen-burn effect if you display your contents using a consumer TV for a long period of time. Unlike television contents, you have only a few advertising contents to display per day. The similar images or contents will be displayed for a long time on your consumer TV.
Screen-burn is a permanent discoloration of areas on a display. It is also known as a ghost image. The effect is caused by different lifespans between different parts on the display. Some parts aged slower and some other parts aged faster. The effect appears more obvious on the parts that rarely change.
Screen-burn effect alone is a strong reason why you should not use your TV in retail advertising. Most commercial digital signage products offer an advanced feature to avoid the screen-burn effect.
Third, a commercial digital signage can withstand a higher level of damage and pressure. Commercial digital signages are installed in areas or stores with high foot traffic. There is a risk that the signages could be accidentally damaged by any visitor or passer-by.
Some commercial digital signages are built with heavier metal housings. The durable materials can protect the signages from external pressure and damage. However, depending on your applications, it is still possible to choose digital signages with lighter housings. Lighter signage is suitable for the high wall-mounted installation.
5. Commercial digital signage supports remote content management.
It is true that most Smart TVs are wireless supported. TVs can be connected to the internet easily via Wi-Fi nowadays. But what if you want to control your display from a remote location?
Commercial digital signage and its content management system make remote monitoring possible. Business owners can access the display remotely. Contents can be customized and updated easily with the aid of the content management system. You can also schedule and rotate your ads remotely using the software. Besides, most content management systems offer preloaded customizable templates that can help business owners to create their contents easily and quickly.
One of the well-known content management software in the market is the Samsung’s MagicINFO. It is a powerful solution that helps businesses to create, schedule and play advertising contents remotely. Besides, it also allows business owners to analyze business data via its data management feature, and to help them to make better business decision.
Another well-known content management software is the LG’s SuperSign CMS. It can support multiple accounts. It also allows users to access the server anywhere from mobile devices. The content and setting scheduling feature is also an interesting feature that can help users in their retail advertising.
Remote Management.
Conclusion
We need the correct tool to perfect our work. The same goes to your retail advertising. Do you want a cheap or a high-value solution to drive store traffic? Consumer TV may have a lower cost in the early stage. However, in the long run, the cost can get higher with additional replacement, repair, and maintenance.
There is a reason why your solution provider suggests a commercial digital signage for retail advertising. Commercial digital signage is not an over-priced solution. It is a value-added solution that will actually save you money in the long run.
Commercial digital signage is more powerful than consumer TV. And most importantly, it is more effective in helping you to grow your business!