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How and why marketers are embracing the pop-up concept

Luciana Moran, SVP, brand, digital and BU marketing at Dun & Bradstreet, explains how the pop-up retail experience can be a creative way to breathe new life into traditional brands via connecting products with consumers at temporary, in-person events designed to generate a lot of buzz.

Photo by iStock.com

July 29, 2019

By Luciana Moran, SVP, brand, digital & BU marketing at Dun & Bradstreet

More companies seeking an innovative way to reach consumers, especially younger shoppers, are considering the pop-up shop. The trend can be a creative way for marketers to breathe new life into traditional brands, connecting products with consumers at temporary, in-person events designed to generate a lot of buzz. The concept also allows companies to enjoy shorter retail leases while getting to better know their customer base.

Hermès showcases its scarf designers

To find an example of an established brand participating in this new trend we need look no further than Hermès. (Founded more than 170 years ago, Hermès got its start making harnesses for horse-drawn carriages. More recently, Hermès' temporary pop-up shop, called the Carré Club, is what Town and Country magazine dubbed a "silk scarf fantasyland."

The Carré Club's 8,000-square-foot studio space in Manhattan gave consumers a brief opportunity to see Hermès scarf designers showcase their production skills in person. The shop featured a concierge desk where scarf lovers could obtain a club membership card, a café with scarf-patterned tables and live performances, and, of course, a boutique that sold Carré Club-exclusive scarves. After a week of operation in New York last year, the pop-up made stops in Toronto, Singapore, Los Angeles, and Milan.

The shop reflects the brand's attempts to go after a younger market, the next generation of customers, in a modern way. And if media coverage of the club is any indication, it appears to be working. New York Magazine's culture and style section, "The Cut", filed its report of the Carré Club under "Fun Things" with the headline: "You're Going to Want to Instagram the Hermès Carré Club." Similar attention can be found in Vogue, Harper's BAZZAR, and InStyle Magazine.

Good Housekeeping Curates Good Home Goods
In another example, Good Housekeeping magazine teamed up with Amazon to launch a pop-up retail shop called GH Lab. Aimed at holiday shoppers, GH Lab was located in the Mall of America in Minneapolis for a three month period that ended in December of last year. The showroom was set up like a mock home with dining and living room areas, and displayed a selection of Good Housekeeping-approved products that consumers could purchase via the Amazon app and have direct-shipped. According to Good Housekeeping editor-in-chief Jane Francisco, everything in the store was carefully curated and vetted by GH experts. The 2,800-square-foot shop stocked 150 recommended products from 46 brands, including Dyson, Microsoft, Nespresso, Samsung, and Instant Pot.

Estée Lauder promotes new beauty line

Estée Lauder embraced the trend when it recently opened a Clinique-branded pop-up shop in New York City. The shop marked the first standalone Clinique store in the US; the brand is typically sold through department stores. The shop opened for one week in February to promote a new line of Clinique products, the Clinique iD range, and featured a skin diagnostic station and a customization bar. The pop-up shop was scheduled to tour to several major US cities over the course of the month, and the firm plans to expand the model into international markets.

Other cosmetic, fragrance, and personal care brands joining the pop-up trend include Chanel, Kylie Cosmetics, Amorepacific, YSL, Glossier, L'Occitane, and Benefit Cosmetics. Beauty pop-ups are becoming less about product, and more about experiences such as makeup and hair classes, influencer appearances, Q&A sessions, or even food service, according to Business of Beauty.

Pop-up experts pop up

The pop-up shop is not exactly a new industry trend. An article published months ago in The Atlantic titled Why There Are Pop-Ups For Everything Now, notes they first cropped up in the early 2000s. It aptly explains, "The goal is not so much immediate revenue as it is promotion and data collection, mapping the internet's capacity for surveillance onto physical retail space."

The marketing tactic is one way savvy marketing orgs can collect data in an ever-growing world of data regulations. By providing  a service to consumers in exchange for information about them, the marketers now have a wealth of information on which to base their campaigns. Those Carré Club membership cards may be free, but I suspect cardholders are not exactly getting something for nothing, even if "something" is just a name and mailing address.

While pop-ups may give off a vibe of whimsy and spontaneity, they are no doubt a very curated approach to marketing, and companies are cropping up to help guide businesses in their pop-up strategy. The Lion'esque Group is one such outfit, calling itself a "pop-up architect." Storefront, meanwhile, is a pop-up rental business that seeks to be the "Airbnb of retail." Another company, Pop-Up Magazine, produces events where brands tell their stories through magazine-style features, films, and live experiences.

The emergence of this niche specialty reflects an opportunity for brands that have been harmed by closures of established retail outlets, proving pop-ups are an increasingly important sales and marketing tool.