Cherryflava

Pop-up explosion: Retailers go bust and brands move in

Posted on 01. Sep, 2009 by Jonathan Cherry in Branding

Even in Cape Town the recession is culling unprofitable retailers, leaving empty shops and vacant business space in its wake. Have a look around the Cape Town or Claremont CBD and you'll be surprised as to the amount of money landlords are losing.

Makes perfect sense then that marketers then jump on the opportunity to fill the void with a bit of branded razzmatazz.

Adage reports:

A few years ago, when cheap real estate was scarce, pop-up stores were
a major investment for marketers. Now temporary stores have emerged as
a perfect solution for cash-strapped brands, commission-hungry brokers
and landlords faced with a glut of commercial real-estate space.

Brands are using these interim spaces as a means to create buzz,
test new concepts or even evaluate a new neighborhood or city. While
temporary stores first began popping up with some regularity in 2003,
sky-high rents and a lack of available space made them a massive
undertaking for brands. Now, in the midst of the recession, the shops
are being viewed as a logical, and even inexpensive, marketing tool.

Pop-up marketing is all about the experience, which makes perfect strategic sense in a media market as fragmented and cluttered as this one. The trick is to do it right. We haven't yet experienced a pop-up in this country that was worth the effort, so perhaps the idea behind the idea hasn't really been understood so well here.

BTW – even ad agencies are trying out the pop-up idea

More: Pop-up store pop up as inexpensive way to build buzz – Adage

Previously: Cherryflava pop-up archive