How not to annoy your customers

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: it was helping Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer, kit out all of its hypermarkets in Brazil with in-store TV. (It has already fitted Carrefour’s shops in Poland.) In China Focus Media, a local company, is dotting the retail landscape with giant screens.

The business model for in-store TV varies. Sometimes a company such as PRN pays for the screens, sells the advertising slots and pockets most of the revenue, with a cut going to the retailer; sometimes the retailer pays for the screens, gets another firm to run them and keeps the revenue for itself. In-store television networks make most sense for big retailers, says Nikki Baird of RSR, because of the cost of installing screens (typically $4,000 per shop) and updating content. Big retail chains also find it easier to attract advertisers, because they can promise more screens in more places.

All of this depends on the willingness of consumer-goods companies to buy advertising slots, however. Though about 80% of them renew their in-store TV deals, they are still not totally sure about the idea. Paul Fox of P&G says it is too soon to judge the new medium. The company is not yet certain, he says, how in-store TV fits into the broader mix of marketing. But studies suggest that three-quarters of all decisions to buy something are made inside shops, so done the right way, in-store TV advertising could, in theory, make a big difference. Stay tuned.