제 21 호 Pop-up Store Marketing
Kicker: ENTERTAINMENT
Pop-up Store Marketing
-Reasons for Companies and Consumers’ Enthusiasm for Pop-up Stores -
By Yun-Seo Jung, Reporter
Have you ever heard of pop-up stores like this? - the Disney pop-up store, the Gentle Monster pop-up store, etc. Or have you ever visited? These days, you can find a lot of pop-up stores while walking around the streets or in department stores. The dictionary definition of the pop-up store is a store which sells a specific product, such as a new product, in a crowded place for a limited time and then disappears. As you can guess from the word ‘pop-up’, it is called ‘pop-up store’ because it is similar to the pop-up window on the internet that appears briefly and then disappears, and its period is as short as one day to a year. The pop-up store originated in 2002 when the American big mart ‘Target’ opened a temporary store when it couldn't find space for a new store. The temporary stores proved to be unexpectedly popular with consumers, and many brands later began opening stores this way.
While previous pop-up stores used to be limited to fashion, cosmetics, and food, the range of recent pop-up stores has expanded to include dramas, movies, entertainment programs, characters, and idols. Unlike before, when the focus was on promoting the brand's new products and checking consumers' reactions by experiencing them, pop-up stores nowadays are not only to promote new products but also to show the brand's own colors. In other words, it can be seen that they're putting a lot of emphasis on branding by utilizing experiential spaces rather than promoting products. Then, why has the nature of pop-up store marketing changed from simple product promotion to consumer participation? Let's take a look at the case of a pop-up store.
We can often find a wide variety of pop-up stores while walking through the streets of Seoul. Among them, if you walk on the streets of Seongsu-dong, you can see many pop-up stores gathered together. Some pop-up stores rent an existing store and sell only a small number of products, while others are built from scratch, and you can see the brand's concept from the outside. As mentioned earlier, hands-on pop-up store marketing has been a big trend lately. The reason for this is that the major consumer group of the brands is the MZ generation, and they are targeting the characteristics of the MZ generation who like to experience themselves as the subjects are targeted. Let's take a closer look at the features through the examples of pop-up stores.
The Example of Pop-up Store Popularity
IG @ugg_korea
From November 23rd to 26th last year, Ugg's 'Feel House' pop-up store was held in Seongsu-dong for four days with the theme of 'Dream New Winter'. The pop-up store had an igloo shaped entrance that reminded people of Ugg from the entrance. And inside, snow props on the floor and a structure of Ugg boots trapped in ice made visitors feel like they were actually inside an igloo. Just as many people wear Uggs during the snowy and cold winter, the image of Ugg was applied to the pop-up store to make people naturally think of Ugg in winter. On the first floor, interactive media art exhibits engaged visitors, and on the second floor, new products such as boot collections and Ugg wear were displayed to promote the product. And there were hash tags events and freebies that can only be found in pop-up stores. The sales effect was great. The collection of winter boots displayed at the pop-up store increased sales by 161% month-on-month during the event, and sales of tazzlita slippers raised by 205%.They gained huge popularity, surpassing 10,000 cumulative visitors in a short period of four days.Online pre-registrations were sold out within 30 minutes of opening, and more than 100 people lined up from an hour before the opening, and the procession of open run continued every day. Through this pop-up store, Ugg not only promoted new products but also imprinted the brand to highlight the brand's message inside.
IG @witheverlandNext is a pop-up store in the department store. Most of the department store pop-up stores are run at The Hyundai Seoul. The Hyundai Seoul opened more than 150 pop-up stores in the first half of 2022, attracting a lot of attention from consumers. There's an entertainment program called ‘earth arcade,’ the character ‘ZANMANG LOOPY,’ and even food pop-up stores. The pop-up store that has become a hot topic recently is “FUBAO, My Sweet Home” organized by Everland. Fubao is the panda that represents Everland's Panda World, and now there's a pop-up store all about animals, so you can see that the scope has really expanded. The "FUBAO, My Sweet Home" pop-up store displayed photos of the Bao family, including Fubao, and has a photo zone where you can take pictures with the Bao family. More than 100 kinds of goods, including blankets, stationery, stuffed dolls and cushions, were unveiled for the first time, and limited-edition first-come, first-served key rings that can only be purchased at pop-up stores. Clothing such as shirts and pajamas printing Fubao images created in collaboration with clothing brand "8seconds" were also available. 20,000 people visited this place for two weeks, and about 1 billion won worth of goods were sold.
The Cause of Pop-up Store Popularity
Then, why are so many people attracted to pop-up stores? The main reason is scarcity. There is a limited period of experience. The fact that we can only visit a pop-up store for a short period of time makes people want to go there even more. Most popular pop-ups also receive a limited number of people through ticketing or waiting for the smooth operation of pop-up stores, such as preventing people from flocking to narrow spaces and making the experience more fun and efficient. In addition, limited-edition goods that can only be received or purchased by visiting pop-up stores are also the cause of attracting people to pop-up stores. Next is the development of social media. With the development of social media, people often display their daily lives, and the desire for imitation consumption has intensified. In the case of a pop-up store, if the person who visits the store posts a photo on their social media, other people who see it will naturally feel the desire to visit. From the standpoint of companies, if they invest in pop-up stores, they can have a big marketing effect with relatively little money through voluntary marketing from consumers, so many brands have recently opened pop-up stores.
Pop-up stores that can attract the MZ generation with limited goods, photo zones, and experience zones, and deliver not only new products but also brand messages to consumers, will continue to be increasing as the marketing effect is tremendous. However, there is definitely a dark side to the pop-up store marketing that so many people are enthusiastic about. That is, as the number of pop-up stores with similar concepts increases, consumers end up feeling tired. In order to reach consumers differently, they need to change their approach. The environment is also the most important issue to consider. The amount of garbage discharged after a pop-up event is enormous. At the Exhibition Design Trends International Forum in May 2022, Kim Hye-ryun, CEO of Gabo Shop, said, "The amount of waste by exhibition events such as pop-up stores is 270 kilograms per 9m2."For a typical small pop-up over 36m2, that's roughly a ton of trash.A large pop-up of more than 200m2 means more than 5 tons of trash. Companies should be aware of the problem of waste discharged through pop-up stores and make efforts such as using eco-friendly materials.
Sources :
https://www.fetv.co.kr/news/article.html?no=153615
https://www.moneys.co.kr/article/2024010315521836654
https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?cid=50305&docId=2067488&categoryId=50305
IG @ugg_korea
IG @witheverland
