Proliferating Pop-ups: Is it a good or bad business decision?

Pop-up shops are increasing by numbers as major luxury brands, mass merchandisers, and local designers follow the growing trend, in an attempt to generate buzz, and excite the customers. Originally started as an underground movement championed by designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Gracons, as a move to counter prevailing practices of establishing flagship stores, she opened in 2004, her first 750-square-foot pop-up shop in East Berlin. She left the space raw and un-decorated to let the customer know that the brand would not hold presence there for long, creating a sense of urgency to buy while its there. So naturally the success of Comme des Garcons did not go un-noticed, big brands started copying the concept but adding their extravagant touch to it, taking the idea Rei Kawakubo used to generate profit, and transforming it to primarily a marketing vehicle. I’m sure Rei Kawakubo was concerned more about generating profits then solely promoting her brand. The problem with big brands is they don’t understand why the independent smaller designers do things. As a small player in a big pool of other players who have massive budgets to spend on advertising, promotions, and creating sales, the smaller brand is forced to think creatively and work with their dramatically smaller budgets.



The big brands are going to saturate the people with the pop-up concept and it will ultimately lose its appeal. The big brands such as Gucci and Louis Vuttion are more concerned about creating a show, and being talked about, so they’re going to spend tons of money doing this, and at the end of it the customer will be jaded with the concept. Instead of focusing more on marketing, they should be focusing more on generating profits. How would they go about distinguishing the pop-up shops from their flagships? Offering targeted products, testing new and risky products. For example take Alexander McQueen’s shoe from his spring 2010 collection:



If I worked for the brand, Id be skeptical as to how many of these shoes we’d be able to sell. So in an attempt to effectively spend money and not over produce the shoes, Id create a small stock, and pre-sale them before the actual season, in a pop-up shop. Based on its sell through rate in the pop-up shop then I’d know if I should stock it at the flagship. I actually think the high-end department stores such as Barneys New York or Saks Fifth Avenue would benefit most from this model. Considering they’re less willing to take risk on designer pieces that may not sell through, or designers that are not well known yet. They could establish pop-up shops in which they have consignment deals with the new designers, and use the shops to gauge whether they should pick up the brand’s line and offer it at their flagship stores. Ultimately the goal should be first to generate profit and second to market the brand. Assuming that creating good marketing will ultimately lead to sales might not be the best assumption to make.

Donna Karen Ad Campaign

Donna Karen Ad Campaign for the Eldridge Bag. "Fourplay" Starring Christina Ricci and directed by JakeSumner

Here is Black Lively carrying the Eldridge Bag. Click on the image to see the Official "Four Play" Video.