brand-e

Says Natasha Kizzie*. If I were to suggest that pop-up stores were getting fashionable, you might retort I’d missed the curve on this trend. Indeed, brands as diverse as HMV, Marmite, Nissan and Orange have already indulged in opening temporary mini-me shops with no sign of any slowdown in uptake.
Yet, for me, one fascinating aspect is how designer fashion brands are getting in on the act. This month we’ve seen a plethora of up-and-coming and established fashion brands embrace the pop-up concept – such as those designed to coincide with the biannual media frenzy that is London Fashion Week.
Lulu Guinness opened a temporary store off Carnaby Street, on a lip theme to cash in on both Valentine’s Day and LFW. Alice Temperley, meanwhile, was hoping for success with a mobile store selling her Alice by Temperley diffusion label.
A double-decker was decked out by Temperley and popped up in a number of London hotspots, from outside department stores such as Selfridge’s, edgy hotspots including ‘downtown’ Hoxton and, of course, the Fashionista’s favourite haunt for the duration of LFW – Somerset House.
Rimmel London launched its first pop-up at department store Selfridge’s that will remain open for just a few more weeks; supermodel Lorraine Pascale catered for the sweet-toothed during LFW with a pop-up bakery, whilst the Dutch Embassy hosted a temporary space housing designers from the Netherlands to coincide with the event.
Such is the interest in all things pop-up that both stores and designers have garnered favourable column inches. Yet – despite their transient nature – it would be foolhardy to dismiss temporary outlets as a mere marketing fad. In commercially challenging times ‘pop-up’ is the antidote to onerous commercial rents and all the other hidden business costs that can often sink a business.
Whether it is a temporary space at an event or occasion or a store within a store, this is a nascent trend but one that we will see continue to grow. Brands that align such activity with their values and target their offerings effectively will benefit.
Pop-up stores should be really intense creative brand hubs: distilled expressions of what your brand stands for. It’s like an espresso shot of your brand – you get a little concentrated experience.
It’s not too long, you won’t feel compelled to go in there and browse for ages, you’re not getting everything on offer you’re getting a tailored version of the brand in whatever environment that it’s popped up in. And that’s quite cool.
Where there is a natural affinity between brands or occasions there is an added benefit to the consumer because they get to double up.
Consumers are wanting to maximise their experiences to get more out of them because they are time poor: they simply don’t have as much disposable time to go meandering out and about on the High Street.
It’s about being very customer centric – and realising that people don’t always have the time to spend time going into your outlet. Rather than pulling them into your outlet, why don’t you go to where they are, to their lifestyle?
And if anyone understands the power and concept of lifestyle it is the successful fashion brands. Think of how fashion has already established itself in the worlds of music, movies and entertainment. Think, in fact, of how fashion itself fills magazines and other media for the consumption of readers or viewers. And how discussions of the fashions of the rich, famous and our friends make for hours of entertainment.
Brands investing in pop-ups must also take advantage of the spontaneous shopping moment and understand that entertainment is a must-have in today’s world, and not a luxury.
If you can be where they’re making some of those ‘need’ type decisions and present them with something that they didn’t think that they knew that they wanted there are many ways to take advantage of those spontaneous moments.
So little wonder that fashion brands are getting in on this act. But then, you might suggest that the concept of pop-up was established by the fashion houses themselves, decamping from their studios twice a year to promote their ideas on the catwalks of Paris and Milan, New York and London.

*Natasha Kizzie, is head of entertainment at KLP