Pop-Up Stores Are the New Marketing Trend

Temporary so-called "pop-up" stores are now seen as an effective marketing tool to promote new products as the cycle of technological innovation and trends changes faster and faster.

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Samsung Electronics has since last week opened a pop-up store at COEX in Samseong-dong to promote its new Galaxy Note smartphone. The temporary sales outlet offers free caricature drawing and name engraving services for customers.

Dongsuh Foods, which recently launched instant ground coffee Kanu, opened a pop-up café in Garosugil, Sinsa-dong, at the end of last year. Actor Gong Yoo, who models for Kanu, made coffee for customers on opening day. Some 100,000 people visited the store in two weeks, and Dongsuh opened an additional pop-up café in Busan.

A PR director of the firm said, "Pop-up marketing is getting positive reviews because it allows customers to test products and get information about them in person compared to one-off promotional events".

The Gorosugil and Gangnam Station areas are the most popular places for pop-up stores as they are considered fashion and trend hubs. Vitamin Water by Coca Cola opened a pop-up store in Garosugil in 2009 to target Korea, the first Asian country it ventured into with the product. A Coca Cola spokesman said, "We were able to predict reaction of consumers to the new product and gain a lot of attention at low cost".

GM Korea launched a pop-up store called Malibu Paradise in heart of Gangnam Station area in October last year. As part of efforts to promote the new medium-sized Malibu, the company carried out various events and test rides.

The industry believes that pop-up stores have joined mainstream marketing and PR methods in the car and electronics as well as the fashion and food industries. Their main objective is promotion and marketing, but they have helped companies make profits in other ways as well, because consumers are attracted to "limited editions" exclusively sold there.

Mogg, a womenswear brand by LG Fashion, enjoyed a 30 percent growth in sales thanks to a pop-up store opened in June last year at the Gangnam branch of Shinsegae Department Store. Cheil Industries' KUHO Plus pop-up outlets in major department stores in Seoul stayed open a month longer than originally planned because sales exceeded W100 million in a week.

Chang Dae-ryun, a business professor at Yonsei University, said, "The pop-up store marketing strategy is effective in enhancing brand image because of the limited time they are open. It is also a good way to test reaction of customers, so industries that are especially sensitive to trends favor this strategy".