Customer service facilities within the retail sector would benefit greatly from utilizing a LCD digital menu board, as a customer can select a service, whilst scrolling advertisements can be displaying other products, services or attractive offers or incentives, luring the customer to spend their hard earned dollar.

There is a growing interest in audiovisual communication at the point of sale within retail outlets, promoting particular brands, due no doubt to the technological advances of recent years. With the widespread availability of plasma and LCD screens becoming more cost effective, additional design and content production are more affordable; a variety of reasons that appeal to the retail market.

Digital menu board signage can be as simple as an illuminated sign to promote a brand name or service. This is a purely hosted model that involves the principle of a cabled television system, where data files converge, and combining linear broadcast to video on demand. The advantages of the device are that it can distribute attractive content (rich media) in real time and personalized with geographically remote control information, which creates a real interaction with the consumer.

According to Forrester Research, in 2011, 90% of stores in North America should be equipped with such equipment. This is one way to improve the brand image of businesses. An unnamed bank has installed plasma screens in its branches to improve the customer reception and present its financial products, but also to entertain the customer and reduce the sense of frustration in queues.

This new medium could introduce a new form of dialogue and interactivity in bank branches, improving the waiting conditions and providing targeted services to the customer in a relevant context in which it will be more receptive. In this digital age, smart phones are providing another dimension. Being within the vicinity of the digital poster, a smart phone has the ability to pick up on proximity marketing – via Bluetooth technology, which sends messages and offers directly to the customer.

This is useful to both banks and other retail outlets, as it is promoting marketing and advertising straight to the recipient. Therefore it can be clearly seen why the market for digital signage is exploding in the U.S. (2.5 billion dollars).