What is POS material?
POS (point of sale) material is the branded items a brand places in an outlet to be seen at the moment of choice, such as signage, menus and table tents, tap handles and fonts, glassware, parasols, bar runners and branded furniture; DashLeads reads it from date-stamped public photos across 20M+ venues. In the trade it is also called POSM (point of sale materials) or visibility kit. The opportunity is seeing, outlet by outlet, where your branding stands and where a competitor's does.
The trusted intelligence layer for teams selling to Hospitality & Retail
Types of POS material
Teams usually sort POS by how long it stays and who owns it. Permanent items are often loaned under a supply agreement and remain the brand's property; temporary items support a promotion and disappear when it ends.
- Permanent: fonts and tap handles, back-bar units, fascia signs, branded furniture, parasols, coolers
- Semi-permanent: printed menus and drinks lists, glassware, ice buckets, chalkboards
- Temporary: posters, table tents, shelf wobblers, event banners and promotion kits
How to measure it
POS share (%) = branded items of your brand seen in a set of outlets / all branded items seen in the same outlets x 100
POS presence (%) = outlets where at least one item of your brand is seen / outlets checked x 100
The first measures how much of the visible branding is yours; the second measures how many venues show you at all. Both depend on what can be seen: count only outlets with a recent look, from an audit or a dated photo, and treat an outlet you have not seen as unknown, not as a zero. Count by object type as well: a tap handle on the bar does a different job from a parasol in the garden.
Worked example
A rep checks 60 bars in one city that have a recent photo. Across them, 220 branded items are visible.
| Brand | Items seen | POS share | Bars with an item | POS presence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leading brand | 99 | 45% | 41 | 68% |
| Your brand | 66 | 30% | 30 | 50% |
| Third brand | 33 | 15% | 18 | 30% |
| Others | 22 | 10% | 15 | 25% |
Your brand is visible in half the bars but holds 30% of the branding. For your rep the list to work is the bars where the leading brand has tap handles and yours shows nothing, say 19 of them: a competitor's fixture on the bar usually means a supply agreement, and agreements have end dates worth asking about.
POS material vs point of sale data
In retail, POS also means the till and its sales records. Point of sale data is the transaction record; POS material is the branding around the moment of choice. When a report says POS, check which one it means.
POS material is also narrower than a perfect store standard, which sets the visibility, range and price an outlet should show. POS material is the visibility part of that standard.
Seeing POS without a visit
Checking visibility used to mean visiting. Dashmote's AI reads date-stamped public venue photos and shows the branded objects it detects, by brand and object type, with the evidence photo and its date, so you can filter for outlets that show a competitor's branding and none of yours. Photo reads are available in selected markets. Ask us about yours. An outlet with no recent public photo shows nothing, which is not the same as a zero.
See POS material detection and the outlet execution audit.
Frequently asked questions
What does POSM stand for?
POSM stands for point of sale materials: the branded signage, displays, menus, glassware and fixtures a brand places in an outlet.
Who owns POS material in a bar?
Permanent items such as fonts, coolers and branded furniture are often loaned and remain the brand's or distributor's property under a supply agreement; temporary items such as posters and table tents are usually given to the venue.
How do you measure POS compliance?
Compare what an outlet shows with what was agreed: the items, where they are placed and their condition, checked by an audit or a dated photo. Compliance is the share of agreed items found in place.
Does more POS material mean more sales?
Not on its own. POS works when it supports a product the venue lists, at the moment of choice, such as a tap handle on a pouring tap or a menu feature for a serve the bar sells. Kit for a product the venue does not list is mostly decoration.
Can POS material be tracked without store visits?
Partly. Date-stamped public photos of a venue show the branded items in view, which covers many outlets without a visit, but only what a recent photo captured. Items out of view still need an audit.