Innovative Modular Solutions to Redesign ‘Point of sale’ Materials

OVERVIEW

Genomma Lab, the Seeker for this Wazoku Crowd Challenge, is seeking innovative modular solutions to redesign their ‘point of sale’ materials: the stands, storefronts, and product displays seen in retail stores all across the world.

Currently, the variety of requirements between products and industries leads to inefficiency, high costs, and a lack of sustainability. Genomma Lab aims to create a more scalable, cost-effective, and sustainable model for point of sale materials. In their work with personal care and over-the-counter brands, Genomma Lab point of sale displays ensure strong ‘stopping power’ for consumers and high conversion opportunities – but they are looking to improve the functionality and sustainability of their in-store materials used worldwide.

In this Challenge, Solvers are encouraged to propose a modular ‘block’ design, consisting of a single base material, which can be assembled, combined, or rearranged to meet global point of sale display requirements.

This Challenge has a $40,000 award for a modular, functional, sustainable, and reconfigurable point of sale display concept, design, solution, and/or prototype that meet all the solution requirements, as solely determined by Genomma Lab. Genomma Lab is also open to issuing partial awards to multiple Solvers, should there be no outright winner that meets all requirements.

Your IP Rights are protected in this Prize Challenge; Genomma Lab must award you to obtain them. This is a Prize Challenge which requires a written and design proposal to be submitted. Awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of the proposal by Genomma Lab against the Solution Requirements. To receive an award for this Prize Challenge, Solvers are required to assign exclusive rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution. Solvers will retain all rights to any proposal not Awarded.

WIN Scouts are very much invited to participate, this being any Solver who can propose a potentially suitable partner (startup or expert) from your network. A separate $1,000 is reserved for WIN Scouts, and by referring a relevant partner you will be recognized with a share of $500 if your referral meets certain minimum criteria of detail, relevance, and format. If your referred organization or individual also takes part in the Challenge and is awarded, you will be able to win a supplementary $500. The input required is guided during the submission process for WIN Scouts below.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on November 26th, 2024.

- Login or register your interest to start solving and scouting!

ABOUT THE SEEKER & ELIGIBILITY

Genomma Lab is a leading company in the personal care and over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical sectors, known for its commitment to innovation, quality, and sustainability. Headquartered in Mexico City, Genomma Lab has a strong presence across Latin America and the United States, offering a diverse range of brands that cater to various health and personal care needs.

The company is dedicated to transforming the retail experience through innovative design and cutting-edge technology. With a focus on consumer insights and sustainability, Genomma Lab aims to create products and solutions that resonate with consumers and drive business growth.

Employees of ­­­­Genomma Lab and their spouses/relatives are ineligible to receive an award for this Challenge.

Wazoku welcomes WIN Scouts and referred partners to become active members of Wazoku Innovation Networks (WIN).

WIN Scouts are invited to participate in this Challenge, this being any Solver who can propose a potentially suitable partner (startup or expert) from your network. 

Find out more about participation in Wazoku Crowd Challenges.

THE CHALLENGE

Background

Across the world, in shops, stores, and retail malls, everyday shoppers can view and purchase products from point of sale (POS)/point of purchase (POP) displays. Point of sale displays and materials are used in physical retail environments, designed to capture shopper’s attention and promote their products. These can range from posters, signage, display stands, banners, and any other particular brand’s marketing materials used in a retail environment.

These displays are often specifically designed by marketing teams with stopping power in mind, to encourage customers to notice, consider, and purchase the products that are being promoted. Each display makes use of its product’s brand, retail marketing techniques, and any potential offers to encourage purchases. Displays, whether at the end of an aisle or on the shelf, are produced with an aesthetics-first mindset: what design will get the customer to stop and shop at this particular display?

To-date, the design and construction of point of sale displays vary wildly: depending on the category of product, marketing campaign, construction, and size requirement of the product on display.

Figure 1: the large variety of point-of-sale displays across several retail environments. Further examples of displays, their locations, and the diversity in existing designs is available in this Challenge’s attachments in two files, titled ‘Wazoku Genomma Lab Point of Sale Materials Examples #1’ and ‘Wazoku Genomma Lab Point of Sale Materials Examples #2’.

This variety can lead to a lack of standardization for point-of-sale materials: even for the same brand or product. Each display requires its own construction plan, render, visual art, and often the material and production requirements change, too. Genomma Lab research has shown almost zero replication between customer displays, other than base material: the shape, size, designs, and construction are all variable. This can drive up costs for production, increases the time required to design and launch point-of-sale campaigns, and has an impact on sustainability.

Once point of sale displays are empty or not going to be replenished by the supplier, retail stores often throw them away. With a lack of repeatability and recyclability/reuse built into point of sale displays, stores find it easier to simply remove them and order more: leading to a lack of circularity.

What if there was an easier, more sustainable, and more cost-effective way to plan, build, and execute point of sale displays across the world?

The Challenge

Genomma Lab is looking to revolutionize the construction and design of point of sale displays and fixtures with scalable solutions, that would be suitable across different retail channels, products, categories, and brands.

Solvers are asked to provide creative approaches – from ideation all the way to prototypes – for modular, key ‘blocks’ that could be combined to meet all the retail needs of a variety of customers, channels, and countries. The submission must show how the key blocks’ design, structure, and material all contribute to the point of sale display achieving:

• Functionality and Adaptability
  • How does the modular solution function? Can it be easily assembled and reconfigured to meet the point of sale requirements?
• Stopping Power and Aesthetics
  • Retaining or exceeding the customer conversion and product placement achieved by existing point of sale displays.
• Production Scalability and Cost-Effectiveness
  • Does the solution demonstrate cost-effectiveness at high quantities (e.g. 50,000 units)?
• Innovation and Design Quality
  • How innovative, novel, and original are the designs proposed by the Solver?
• Sustainability
  • Use of eco-friendly and sustainable materials, principles, and practices.

This should take the format of a detailed description and sketches, at minimum, but Genomma Lab will favor Solvers in evaluation who provide 3D models/suitable but comprehensive visualizations or prototypes (either a working model or detailed video demonstration).

These blocks must be designed in a single base material (such as injected plastic or cardboard) in order to standardize the production requirements of point of sale displays. However, the design and construction of these blocks is up to the creativity of the Solver: they could be consistent (the same size/shape and assembled separately or added together like LEGO bricks), variable (different sizes/shapes), or any innovative combination determined to be effective.

How will you design functional, modular ‘blocks’ that can meet all the requirements of differing point of sale displays?

The point of sale display examples, for use in this Challenge, are as follows:

• End Caps – positioned at the end of an aisle, end caps merge to be a seamless part of the rows of products in supermarkets but provide a storefront for a specific brand or product.
• Floor Stands – freestanding displays that could be positioned anywhere around a retail environment.
• Sidekicks – sidekick designs for point of sales see the product hanging from a shelf, for instance in an aisle of products, to give this product further promotion.
• Shelf Trays – these trays are used on the shelves at retail stores and are designed to both showcase and house the product in question.
• Counter Displays – smaller, more compact point of sales displays that are positioned on top of a flat surface, at eye-level, either around the store or at point of purchase.

For visual representations of these listed displays, see Figure 2:

Figure 2: Example point of sale display mock-ups for use in this Challenge.

To assist Solver designs, please use the following table as indicative of sizes (in centimeters) of the displays:

The solution must be applicable and impactful across trade channel (i.e. the retail environment it is placed in), category (type, size, and shape of product being displayed), and country differences.

This solution will enable Genomma Lab to revolutionize the retail landscape around the world, delivering high-quality in-store materials at lower-cost, to ensure a scalable solution for all trade channels, categories, and countries. Participation in this Challenge will allow Solvers to use their creative skills to redesign and solve a global problem, and if you meet all solution requirements as determined by Genomma Lab, a winning Solver could be awarded $40,000 USD for their outstanding design and concept. Should there be multiple proposals that meet some but not all of the solution requirements, multiple awards may be issued from the prize amount.

SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS

In your repeatable, modular solution for different point of sale displays, Genomma Lab encourages innovation, creativity, and analogous/adjacent technologies to solve the problem. You must present Genomma Lab with:

1. A detailed description of your solution’s materials, features, and assembly instructions,
2. Design concepts of your solution’s design (sketches, models, blueprints, or other format),
3. and suitable attachments in the correct format (see Your Submission below) in order to be considered for the award.

Genomma Lab is primarily interested in solutions with the potential to meet the following requirements:

Must have:

1. Functionality and Adaptability – 25% evaluation weighting – Modular solution proposed by Solver displays usability and practicality in real-world settings, for a wide variety of product categories, sizes, shapes, and scenarios. Facilitates product placement for the best possible customer interactions. Components can be easily assembled and reconfigured to meet different point of sale display requirements.
2. Stopping Power and Aesthetics – 25% evaluation weighting - In all retail environments, catching a customer’s eye is critical. Please show in your detailed description, designs, and/or models how different brands could market their different products/categories – across the point of sale fixture examples – while using the same core modular solution. Regarding aesthetics, modular designs will still be used in retail areas across the world, so designs must be clean and coherent across the board.
3. Production Scalability and Cost-Effectiveness – 20% evaluation weighting - Please indicate in your proposal where your modular design for point of sale displays innovates in terms of costs and scalability of production. When creating your submission, please note that production could scale to over 50,000 units minimum to reduce costs.
4. Innovation and Design Quality – 10% evaluation weighting – Your submission must show novelty, originality, and visual appeal of the design for point of sale fixtures/displays in comparison to existing designs for point of sale displays.
5. Sustainability – 10% evaluation weighting – Your submission should use of eco-friendly materials and sustainable design principles and practices. Please detail in your submission how your modular solution achieves sustainability, not just in its design/materials/contents but also in its lifecycle in retail environments.
6. Presentation – 10% evaluation weighting - clarity and thoroughness of the materials submitted as part of your solution. In this global design contest, Genomma Lab is looking for the most outstanding designs and concepts as well as showstopping presentations from Solvers.

The core solution requirements in this Challenge are around functionality and effectiveness of the submission’s ability to replace and exceed the performance of current point of sale display designs. Additionally, Genomma Lab is interested in the stopping power and aesthetics of your submission – but this is secondary to the other factors, as seen in the weighting of the requirements.

Additionally, your solution could meet the following nice-to-have criteria:

• Prototype – while not a must have requirement in this Challenge, Genomma Lab will give additional weight to solutions that have been made (to proof-of-concept level or greater), going beyond visualizations to a created model of your submission. This could be shared with the evaluation team as a working model or as a detailed video demonstration, however Genomma Lab will still rely on theoretical evaluation of Solver solutions from your submission and materials in order to determine award(s).

Solutions with Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 1-6 are invited.

This Prize Challenge has the following features:

1. Your IP Rights are protected in this Prize Challenge; Genomma Lab must award you to obtain them.
2. The best solution in this Prize Challenge has the opportunity to win the award of $40,000 USD for meeting all solution requirements, as solely determined by Genomma Lab. Genomma Lab is also open to issuing partial awards to multiple Solvers, should there be no outright winner that meets all requirements.
3. Awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of the proposal by Genomma Lab against the Solution Requirements.
4. To receive an Award for this Prize Challenge, Solvers are required to assign exclusive rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution.
5. WIN Scouts are invited to participate, this being any Solver who can propose a potentially suitable partner (startup or expert) from your network. As a WIN Scout, by referring a relevant partner you will be recognized with a share of a separate $500 recognition award if your referral meets certain minimum criteria of detail, relevance, and format. In this Challenge, if your referred organization or individual also takes part in the Challenge and is awarded, you will be able to win a supplementary $500 recognition award.
6. Genomma Lab may also issue “Honorable Mention” recognitions for notable submissions that are not selected for monetary awards.

YOUR SUBMISSION

Please login and register your interest, to complete the submission form.

In this Challenge, design elements are a must-have for your submission. These are required to be delivered to the Genomma Lab evaluation team in the following formats:

• High-resolution PDF, JPEG, or OBJ/STL format for 3D models.
• All files must be zipped into a single folder (.zip format) and submitted as an attachment to your submission.

The submitted proposals must be written in English and can include:

1. Participation type – you will first be asked to inform us how you are participating in this challenge, as a Solver (Individual), Solver (Organization), or WIN Scout – (submission uses an alternative form).
2. Solution Level - the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your solution.
3. Partnering - there may be an opportunity to partner at the conclusion of this Challenge. Please indicate if partnering is of interest to you.
4. Problem & Opportunity - highlight the innovation in your approach to the Problem, its point of difference, and the specific advantages/benefits this brings (up to 500 words).
5. Solution Overview - detail the features of your solution and how they address the SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS (500 words, there is space to add more in the summary field, and attach supporting data, diagrams, etc).
6. Experience - Expertise, use cases and skills you or your organization have in relation to your proposed solution.  (up to 500 words).
7. Solution Risks - any risks you see with your solution and how you would plan for this (up to 500 words).
8. Timeline, capability and costs - describe what you think is required to deliver the solution, estimated time and cost (up to 500 words).
9. Online References - provide links to any publications, articles or press releases of relevance (up to 500 words).

Wazoku encourages the use by Solvers of AI approaches to help develop their submissions, though any produced solely with generative AI are not of interest.

Find out more about participation in Wazoku Crowd Challenges.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on November 26th, 2024.

Late submissions will not be considered.

Your submission will be evaluated by the evaluation team first reviewing the information and content you have submitted at the submission form, with attachments used as additional context to your form submission. Submissions relying solely on attachments will receive less attention from the evaluation team.

After the Challenge submission close date, Genomma Lab will complete the review process in order to make a decision with regards to the winning solution(s) according to the timeline in the Challenge header. All Solvers who submit a proposal will be notified about the status of their submissions.