Custom Floor Mats
Next time you walk into a grocery store, a fast food restaurant, or a major department store franchise, look down. Odds are, you will see a custom floor mat provided for you to wipe your shoes on in inclement weather. Why are they there? Is it altruism? Does the store staff simply want to give you a place to clean your dirty shoes? Is it a safety concern? Do they want to make sure that you don't bring wet shoes into the building accidentally slip and fall? Or are they merely looking to keep their store clean and free of any mud that their customers track in?
All of the above are true, but they're not the only reasons that businesses use custom floor mats. Take a closer look. What do you see? Odds are, it's a company logo or catchphrase, and whether you consciously realize it or not, that logo registers in your brain. It sticks with you.
"[Custom floor mats] build brand and product awareness from the point of entry continuing to product selection and on to the point of purchase," claims Logo Mats Direct, a company that designs and creates custom floor mats for business clients across the country, on their official corporate website. "Logo mats are utilized at entrances both indoors and outdoors, at point of purchase locations, and in conjunction with product displays to promote greater product and corporate name recognition."
There are several different types of custom floor mats available, although not every manufacturer will carry every time of mat. The first is the basic outdoor entrance mat, which is usually made of sturdy carpet and serves double duty by preventing dust, dirt, mud or moisture from making it inside the store. Indoor mats are also usually constructed from carpeting. Some indoor mats can also help eliminate static and make it easier for customers to walk around in the store, making it so that they do not wear out as quickly and thus have more time and energy to browse through a business's offerings. Examples of indoor custom floor mats include point of purchase mats, which are kept at or around the checkout location, and runners, which are longer than traditional floor mats and are usually kept in aisles or walkways.
Custom floor mats are essentially a stealth advertising technique. They help improve product recognition without the customer directly being aware of it. Small business owners who have yet to discover the wonders of these products will find several places online where they can explore their possibilities. Per unit prices vary greatly among different products and different sellers, although most retailers offer a bulk-rate discount for larger orders.