USA Today tells us that there is a flood of pop-up stores in the U.S., to fill empty spaces in the malls, during the Christmas holidays. One finds (pell-mell) Hickory Farms (which has been doing it for 15 years), Toys R Us (with 80 shops), JC Penney (for its jeans), Daffy's, G-Star and several designer brands. Clearly the low overheads and availability of space make the concept attractive during a period when, traditionally, sales are significant.
However, these are just business opportunities, far removed from efforts made to strengthen the values of the brand. I propose to draw your attention to two examples that are much more interesting - because they correspond to real brand strategy.
eBay - which has no stores - has set up a pop-up of 550 m2 in the heart of Manhattan (they are planning 12 in the USA), "stocked with a dizzying selection of Norma Kamali’s exclusive fashions for eBay, L.A.M.B. shoes, handbags from Michael Kors and Dooney & Bourke, Anthropologie dresses, cosmetics from M.A.C., Smashbox and other brands, and the Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue and Vera Wang Princess fragrances. Electronics, toys, home and garden items.”
eBay - whose business model is no longer as successful as it was some years ago - is copying Amazon. It has become a huge sales website ... which needs to promote its new model. The pop-up stores serve this purpose.
Even more interesting is the Jet Blue pop-up store. I referred to their offbeat communication campaign in March: This low-cost airline (associated with Lufthansa since last August) that provides top-quality service, (almost) on a par with business class, has made humour its trademark. It has just opened a pop-up in New York (opposite an Apple Store) where no products are sold: One finds an exhibition of an amazing collection of curious objects that appeared in its latest advertising campaign "For those times where you're not on JetBlue”. We find here the first logical relationship between the ad and the pop-up. There is a second: these objects are all imaginary creations which any harassed traveller who does NOT travel on JetBlue would need (a signal to warn the person behind you that you are going to tilt back your seat / knee pads to better wedge yourself against the seat in front of you to sleep / a big marshmallow pillow to lean against the window, etc.). Consistency between brand positioning, style, advertising discourse and temporary location. A great success!
However, these are just business opportunities, far removed from efforts made to strengthen the values of the brand. I propose to draw your attention to two examples that are much more interesting - because they correspond to real brand strategy.
eBay - whose business model is no longer as successful as it was some years ago - is copying Amazon. It has become a huge sales website ... which needs to promote its new model. The pop-up stores serve this purpose.
Even more interesting is the Jet Blue pop-up store. I referred to their offbeat communication campaign in March: This low-cost airline (associated with Lufthansa since last August) that provides top-quality service, (almost) on a par with business class, has made humour its trademark. It has just opened a pop-up in New York (opposite an Apple Store) where no products are sold: One finds an exhibition of an amazing collection of curious objects that appeared in its latest advertising campaign "For those times where you're not on JetBlue”. We find here the first logical relationship between the ad and the pop-up. There is a second: these objects are all imaginary creations which any harassed traveller who does NOT travel on JetBlue would need (a signal to warn the person behind you that you are going to tilt back your seat / knee pads to better wedge yourself against the seat in front of you to sleep / a big marshmallow pillow to lean against the window, etc.). Consistency between brand positioning, style, advertising discourse and temporary location. A great success!
Just for fun here is a sample of the advertising campaign in question:
