The term “solution” is one that gets tossed around a little too easily nowadays. In math, the solution is the answer; it is black and white with no grey area. So why is it that when it comes to consumer goods and services, this is not the case? In a lot of circumstances, the actual solution is nothing but a state that has become more and more nebulous. I remember when I bought a CRM solution for our business. I was shown all the bells and whistles and was convinced that what I was buying would help grow our business and take it to the next level (Digital Menu Boards: The Message is (NOT) Clear – see #3). As it turned out, it handled the sales and business development side of our business just fine, but fell short in all other areas of our operations.
Digital Menu Board Solution – Or No Solution at All?
The Importance of Well-Designed Menu Boards
If you have read any of our blogs you have probably noticed that we have touched on the title of this blog in bits and pieces throughout most of them. Whether it be Increase Sales with Strategically Placed Signage or Speed of Service Affected by Poorly Designed Menu Boards or a number of others, it is undeniable that the design of the menu board is of utmost importance. This holds true whether you are using a digital menu board, traditional menu board, a cheap corrugated menu board, or any type of system. Unfortunately, most consumers find themselves most concerned with “how do I make changes if I need to” and even more so, “how much does it cost?”
Increase Sales with Strategically Placed Signage
Have you driven by a McDonalds lately? What about a Burger King? Have you been inside a Dunkin Donuts in the last, well, forever? What about a 7/11? Other than being monsters in their industry, what do they all have in common? (I am guessing the title may have given it away) Signs, signs and more signs! If the simple fact that all of these types use a variety of displays isn’t evidence enough, consider this – according to the Point of Purchase Advertising Institute, in-store advertising such as point of purchase (POP) displays influence 53 to 60 percent of consumer purchases. Put another way, over HALF of the people that walk in to your location can be influenced by signage. Now does it make sense why all the giants are signage heavy? Talk about an area to increase sales volume!
Digital Menu Boards: The Message is (NOT) Clear
I was lying in bed the other night on the heels of a three demo day thinking to myself, “I really nailed those digital menu board demos today.” I had checkmarks beside everything I was looking to achieve:
- Qualified on price prior to the demo being scheduled… √
- Discussed their objectives in detail, dug deeper and spoke to their pain points… √
- Reviewed the benefits of the software and all it could do for their business… √
- Established a clear next step… √
Despite this, I got to thinking, did those three that I demoed the software for, or even the last 20-50, go to bed feeling as good about the demos as I had? Do they realize the control they possess? Do they understand the true capabilities of a ditial menu board system?
Breaking Down the 12 Benefits of Digital Menu Boards
On May 13th, 2012 Digital Signage Today published the “12 Benefits of Digital Menu Boards.” What they did was survey quick-service and fast casual restaurants that have already installed digital menu boards and had them define these benefits based on their experiences. They then had these operators weight the impact of each, which yielded the percentages below.
Although the benefits may seem straightforward to some, digging a little deeper may open some eyes to areas they would have otherwise never considered.
5 Reasons to Use Commercial Grade LCD Screens for Digital Menu Boards
So you have decided to go the digital menu board route, which is excellent. You are forward-thinking enough to see the value in such a system – the ability to test market items, control inventory, promote specials and limited time offers, change your content quickly and easily and the list goes on. All of this is great, but our kudos comes to a screeching halt when you decide to go the consumer or residential LCD route for your display purposes.
We get the mentality, “I can buy two 40” LCDs from Wal-Mart for less than one of those commercial grade LCDs.” A compelling argument and one that we at Origin Displays tend to not do battle with… but maybe we should. You see, there are stark differences between consumer televisions and commercial grade LCDs and choosing the incorrect LCD will cause nothing but frustration and wasted time and money.
5 Benefits of Digital Menu Boards in the Cloud
Digital menu boards in the Cloud, now what does that mean? In a post made by Doug Bannister on networldalliance.com he describes it as such:
Cloud computing is a term used to describe a wide variety of online services which provide remote, scalable computing resources that are accessible by means of the Internet rather than present on a local computer or network.
Digital Menu Boards for Digital Menu Boards
This is a tale of a company (we’ll call them “Truffys”) looking for the ideal digital menu board solution. Truffys however, is not a start-up, they are not building out, they aren’t renovating and certainly aren’t in the business planning stages. They are a well-established staple in their community and have been so for over 25 years. Their renovation took place three years ago. With electricians and contractors crawling around their place for a month plus, you’d think it would have been a good idea to go digital back then. It turns out, they thought it was a good idea too, which is why they did install digital menu boards. You see, Truffys is now looking for the ideal digital menu board solution because they picked the wrong one 3 years ago and it has become the bane of their existence.
The Digital Menu Board Search – We’ve Been There!
When Origin began to look to add digital menu boards to our product line, we were in the same situation I’m sure many of you find yourself in. We knew what we wanted, but the industry had become so saturated, where were we to start? A similar predicament you may be facing – where to even begin your digital menu board search. I’m sure you’ve read our blogs about ‘pitfall this’ and ‘shortcoming that’ when it comes to digital signage. Trust me, we’ve spent hours doing the research about which solution works best in what situation. Since we’ve already done the research, there’s no need for you to waste your time re-researching what we’ve already found.
Origin Elite Digital Menu Boards – The Journey to Get Here
Six years ago, one of the current owners of Origin Displays was chosen to work directly with the President of his previous company to add digital menu boards to the core product line. The President had already selected the software platform to build from. Software was the premier choice for networked digital signage – it was the best on the market. It took 3 days of networking and system management training and another 2 days of design and scheduling/content management training to get a handle on the system.
