Pop-up Shops more prevalent at Christmas?

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, U.K. - Oct. 15, 2013 - PRLog -- From gallery-like shopping spaces with one-off exhibitions to mobile units Swan Global Direct has taken this trend and made it staple of how they do their direct marketing on behalf of their clients.

Too often, when it comes to pop-up shops, brands think that merely by setting up a pop-up in a trendy location, and attracting enough visitors, the venture was a success and the big ‘retail marketing’ box can be ticked. This is a missed opportunity.

Certainly, for any brand a pop-up stand can help generate new buzz and help with brand awareness. So why aren’t more companies using this trend? The fact is that getting a stand in the right location and doing it monthly or weekly is an expensive business. Being an ‘expensive business’ is fine if a pop-up stand can justify its existence financially, but most can’t, and staff, stock and space come at a premium. They’re usually paid for out of a firm’s marketing budget, and their usefulness beyond merely that most intangible of aims – engagement – is rarely explored. Return on investment is difficult to prove (or perhaps better left uninvestigated) and sales are incidental, rather than one of the primary goals of a pop-up stand’s existence. But done properly, pop-up stands, or temporary retail experiences, don’t only get more people talking about your brand, they get more people spending with you immediately too.

Swan Global Direct has brokered deals for with clients in the third sector in key locations such as Newcastle Gateshead, Eldon Square, The Forum, CastleGate and IKEA. For each, they have created a temporary retail experience that places profits at the heart of the strategy by acting not only as a point of sale, but also a direct-to-consumer showroom.

Swan Global Direct has helped these brands understand how experiential marketing can be rewarding in both attracting visitors, and attracting sales.  And this mobile commerce element has other uses: for example, it can also be harnessed to capture all-important data so you can make that customer aware of brands at a later date, or just learn more about your target market.

Done well, temporary retail really works. So if you’re thinking about having a pop-up, think about how you can make it work harder for your brand. Make it inspiring, make it use technology in the best way it can, and above all, make it pay.

Swan Global Direct is an outsourced event sales and marketing company hired by national companies in the United Kingdom to create brand awareness and increase customer acquisition. Swan Global Direct also provides a business development programme to young entrepreneurs that want to learn how to run and manage a sales business.