To arouse a customer’s excitement about a new product, many companies—big and small—are experimenting and taking a liking to a new marketing strategy known as the pop-up shop.
Last month, American Express Canada organized an exclusive event at a Toronto restaurant featuring star chefs that closed within a week of its opening. Likewise, companies like Ikea have participated in the retail trend, and big stakeholders like Google are scheduled to to partake in the pop-up allure by promoting their new Google Home Mini at a doughnut shop in Toronto.
According to Canadian retail analyst Tamara Szames, the pop-up phenomenon is a smart trend that companies are taking advantage of by changing and adapting to consumer habits. The success of a pop-up shop is measured by how many customers are intrigued by a brand’s temporary presence and whether or not customers make the trip to one of their locations or add traffic to their online store. For any size company, the pop-up strategy is invaluable because it allows a brand to test markets and promote their products in a compelling way, especially for the millennial generation.
As a marketing strategy, pop-up shops give brands who are sold in stores the opportunity to promote themselves in their own way. As a result, customers can interact with brands on a personal, and more exclusive way—something that they cannot always experience when they enter into a regular store.
While pop-up shops are trendy, they don’t come with an early expiration date. Szames suggests that millennials respond well to the pop-up experience which gives more companies a reason to experiment with the strategy in new and interesting ways.
