If you have ever had an employee that was just standing around and doing the bare minimum for their job, wouldn’t you try and get them doing more? Otherwise, your employees wouldn’t be living up to their maximum potential. It’s the same with stanchions.

Stanchions can be leveraged to do so much more than just stand there and perform crowd control. Surprised? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. With a few add ons, stanchions can be used in so many ways so they don’t end up just wasting space. One of the most powerful uses? Marketing.

Some businesses will end up spending millions of dollars on advertisements? Why? To extend the reach of their business and get their product or service in front of hundreds of consumers. Specifically, many of these businesses market with the intent to create a brand for their business.

Now by no means is it possible for stanchions to have the effect of multi-million dollar ads. If that was true, everyone would be buying retractable stanchions, and business would be booming.

But, did you know that the average North American will spend two years of their life waiting in line? Most marketers would drool at the prospect of such a captive audience. With a few tweaks to your retractable stanchions, you can easily add another cost-effective marketing tool to your business.

Printable Belts

Tired of boring old black? Your customers are too. One important feature of belt stanchions that businesses rarely take advantage of is the ability to customize and print on the belts.

Some effective practices for custom belt printing include printing them in your company colours, slogan, and branding them with your logo. Why does this work? Waiting in line, your customers are going to be surrounded by your printed belts. Subconsciously, this reinforces an image and impression in their mind and creates top-of-the mind awareness.

Let’s use Tim Hortons as an example. Tim Hortons could print red belts with the slogan “Always fresh”. When customers are lining up, they will see the message “Always fresh” and associate that with Tim Hortons. The next time they’re looking to satisfy their caffeine craving, guess what jingle is going to be popping up in their head? “Always fresh, always Tim Hortons”.

Branding on a budget.

 

Engaging Signs

Many stanchions have the ability to be equipped with Metal Frame Sign Panels. Often time these signs are being used to direct traffic with messages such as “Line Starts Here” or “Please Wait to be Served”.

But those don’t have to be the only messages that you put on your stanchions.

One of the benefits of these signs is that they are often very close to eye-level, and customers usually can’t resist taking a look if they’re bored and just waiting in line. Take advantage of this attention.

If you’re selling food or concession, place signs that promote the “Combo of the Day’ or “Seasonal Special”. Promote food products that would be impulse purchases for your customers. I know that if I saw a sign that said “Upgrade your fries for only 50 cents”, I wouldn’t be able to resist.

In general, using images on these signs will draw more attention to them and improve the marketing of your products and brands. Yes a picture is worth a thousand words, but more importantly humans will connect with and remember visual cues much better than text.

Other ideas for your signs? Make your line up a visual story with signs. Share your latest events. Fill them with quotes and testimonials that represent your company. Who says that signs can only be directions?

Go wild.

 

Stanchion Types

If you’re looking to purchase stanchions or just looking to replace ones that have started to wear out, take into consideration what type of stanchion you will be purchasing. Your choice of stanchion can have a subtle influence on customer perception of your company.

The biggest choice that presents itself will be whether to go with cheaper, plastic stanchions or premium stainless steel stanchions. As a result of their metallic finish, the stainless steel stanchions project a classier and sophisticated feel compared to the plastic ones. They’re shiny.

While seemingly trivial, this choice applies especially to business that are looking to be perceived as higher end or luxury. Choosing premium stanchions will reinforce the high-class image of your business and show your customers that they are valued.

Pay attention to all the details. Even the stanchions.