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Lexmark, better known for printers, joins digital signage fray at NRF16

Global tech provider Lexmark International Inc. is launching its new digital menu board solution this week at the National Retail Federation BIG Show in New York City

January 18, 2016

Global tech provider Lexmark International Inc. is launching its new digital menu board solution this week at the National Retail Federation BIG Show in New York City, the company announced.

Lexmark's new solution is intended to help address a long list of menu board challenges for retailers, the company said, including employee safety risks, localization and legal compliance.

• According to the announcement, the DMB solution addresses the challenge of employee safety risks (employees often have to climb ladders to reach the boards, which can be out of reach) with digital signs that can be changed from headquarters or at the store level without the need for ladders or lifts. The solution also eliminates the delays and expenses related to large-format signage production.
• To address localization — updating information for local store promotions and ongoing price changes is difficult to manage; retailers often fall back on patched-together or handwritten signs — DMBs allow retailers to deliver impactful sales messages to up-sell, cross-sell and promote products without a heavy burden of original content creation. Retail headquarters direct the content while allowing stores to modify based on local pricing and assortment. 
• And to address issues around legal compliance (Regulations in the U.S. can create challenges for retailers in managing compliance. A recent example is the Affordable Care Act, which requires retailers and restaurants to post nutritional information on menu boards.) the solution allows retailers to pull related content from databases to publish on digital signs. This automated method for presenting content eliminates the need to build signs one at a time and makes displaying required information, such as nutritional information, fast and easy to manage, the company said.

"Retailers increasingly need a faster, easier way to update menu board content," said Marty Canning, Lexmark executive vice president and president of Imaging Solutions and Services. "Lexmark's Digital Menu Board solution streamlines sign updates and allows retailers to design and present impactful promotions that drive sales."