Many advertisers choose to test new approaches to communications in smaller markets before they invest in a national campaign. This gives marketers the reassurance that they won’t be wasting their finite budgets and also allows planners to inject consumer learnings into the larger roll out. This is an example of a small business testing their market potential through the use of a pop-up store. Tokyo Bike is a shop all about bikes. They set up a store in an empty space and made the “office furniture” out of cardboard boxes.
Tokyo Bikes pop-up store has proven a cheap way to establish themselves within the community before investing in permanent assets. I like the authentic nature of this ‘test’. It allows the brand to get amongst the people who are ultimately likely to benefit from the product whilst raising awareness through buzz generation. The key to the success of pop-up stores is making them novel enough for people to take an interest whilst extending distribution in areas that the existing assets don’t cover.
Creating pop-up installations around new products before they hit the supermarket shelves could help beauty brands create demand for products via word-of-mouth. Further, beauty brands might take advantage of overseas success that filters into the Australian market via blogs & editorial, and make the products available via pop-up stores prior to launch.
