Obviously I’ll correct this entry if/when I find out it’s inaccurate but in the meantime, who or what was responsible for starting the trend in pop-up?
Few brands could contend with the US franchise retailer Target, whose ongoing advocacy of pop-up make their creations one of the most published. In late 2002, they opened a store in a floating barge on the Hudson River, erm, targeting Manhattan shoppers and showcasing its holiday merchandise during the busy Christmas period. The following year it opened a temporary 1500 sq.ft. store in the Rockefeller Centre for a little over a month to celebrate fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi’s new women’s clothing line.
It has since run a number of other pop-up store campaigns including “Deliver the Shiver” where trucks showed up in high foot traffic areas such as Times Square selling brand new air conditioners complete with a free bulls eye pull cart; a venue called the “Target Bullseye Inn” – a former antique shop transformed into a pop-up store selling fashionable summer goods for the beach and patio; and the Target “Pink” Store in Times Square selling its exclusive range of pink products to raise money for breast cancer. In May this year they opened the “Bullseye Bazaar”, dedicated to fashion, makeovers, beauty tips and savings. A good summary of their activity, amongst others, can be found on the excellent Trendwatching overview here.
Target is an interesting starting point for pop-up. They currently operate over 1,700 stores across 49 states, making them a formidable power and an omnipresent high street fixture. They’re product selection is vast and their brand advocacy second to none, claiming 96% awareness (allegedly even better than the Nike Swoosh or the Apple apple?). So what do they achieve from their ongoing commitment to popping up?
According to John Remington, Target’s VP of Marketing, “pop-up stores aim to give consumers a hands on experience which might entice them to enter a full service Target store”.
Indeed, ‘enticement’ is often the communication objective for brands engaging in pop-up activity. Where consumers are for some reason alienated from the usual means of engaging with a product or service, brands use pop-up to temporarily re-invent or refresh themselves to a particular audience. Focused, bite-sized, unexpected nuggets of brand DNA to nibble on, in the hope that it will lead to a Sunday Roast with all the trimmings.
