Hello, this is Realworld!
As we operate 'Realworld Seongsu' in Seongsu-dong, known as the mecca of pop-up stores, we've naturally become very interested in 'pop-up stores'!
So let's explore everything about pop-up stores from A to Z together~!
What is a Pop-up Store?
A pop-up store gets its name from the similarity to web pop-ups, appearing suddenly and then disappearing.
In other words, it refers to a 'temporary store' that operates only for a limited period (as short as one day, as long as a year).
While some people confuse it with 'guerrilla events' due to the short duration, they can be clearly distinguished by whether a location is rented for the operation.
To truly understand pop-up stores, we need to know their origins, right?
The beginning of pop-up stores is known to trace back to 2001 when Target, a major American discount retailer, set up a temporary store in Manhattan, the fashion capital.
At that time, there were no Target stores in Manhattan, so they set up a temporary store to directly show residents their reasonably priced products.
When this project was successfully completed, Target announced that they introduced pop-up stores in unexpected locations to attract attention in communities where they had no stores.
In essence, the first pop-up store began as a means of viral marketing to instantly attract people and generate word-of-mouth.
Carrying on this legacy, pop-up stores began to be utilized in Korea starting in 2013, primarily by the retail industry as part of marketing for promoting new products.
Why Are Pop-up Stores So HOT?
So how did pop-up stores establish themselves as a marketing trend?
Song Gil-young, Vice President of Vibe Company and big data expert, diagnoses that this is due to the emergence of 'retail media'.
He explains that with the advent of smartphones and 'retail media' in the 2000s, purchasing behavior shifted from offline to online, and naturally, offline stores could no longer serve merely as 'sales outlets' - a new era had arrived.
Particularly after experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, expectations for offline spaces became much higher, and brands (companies) needed spaces that could satisfy customer needs. If people flood in but all leave disappointed with their visit experience, thinking 'I should have just bought this online...', that can't be good for the brand.
Therefore, various brands and companies began searching for ways to make offline spaces provide 'experiences' that cannot be replaced online.
This is how everyone started operating 'pop-up stores' as a means to convey their brand message (values).
To summarize, while the original pop-up stores were marketing tools for product promotion and sales, today's pop-up stores have evolved beyond just sales purposes to become branding tools for 'experience' and 'experiential' engagement to showcase brand values and stories.
As this strategy became established as a culture and significantly contributed to actual brand awareness and sales, it spread like a trend among brands.
What Makes a Well-Made Pop-up Store?
The 'pop-up store' fever is still hot even now in 2024.
According to Innocean Insight Group's announcement, monthly pop-up store searches reach about 70,000, related blog posts exceed 170,000 cumulative publications, breaking new records every year, and nationwide, approximately 150 pop-up stores operate daily!
Amidst this flood of pop-up stores, what criteria should brand marketing managers consider to capture customers' attention?
We're revealing the 3 criteria for 'well-made pop-up stores' selected by UniqueGood Company members after visiting numerous pop-up stores throughout 2023 and extensive discussions!
Have One Unified Worldview (Story)!
There's something you must know before operating a pop-up store: there are more walk-in customers than you'd expect.
This means a huge number of people casually visit when something catches their interest while passing by, even if they don't know the brand.
So what's the best way to generate interest?
We believe it's creating a unique 'worldview' for the pop-up store.
For people unfamiliar with the brand to easily understand the product and empathize with its values, there must be a well-crafted 'story' from the exterior to the interior.
Here's an example that utilized this well.
🍿 Movie <Concrete Utopia>: Hwanggung Apartment Application & Last Hope
Movie marketing tends to be quite predictable.
Once a movie's release date is confirmed, they hold press conferences for media outlets and run 'SNS comment expectation campaigns' with movie tickets as prizes for general audiences. 99 out of 100 movies follow this procedure.
Occasionally they operate pop-up stores for promotion, but most were just mini-game formats that merely went through the motions rather than helping people understand the movie's content.
While audiences continuously demand something new, the lack of content to satisfy this demand made changing these marketing methods the biggest concern for movie companies.
In August 2023, the movie <Concrete Utopia> starring Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon, and Park Bo-young was released. The distributor 'Lotte Entertainment' partnered with playable content platform 'Realworld' to operate online ARG content introducing Hwanggung Apartment, the movie's setting, and an experiential theater pop-up store where audiences became protagonists in the story to solve missions.
As a result, the online campaign webpage achieved over 180,000 views and over 7,000 event participants, while the offline linked pop-up store recorded over 20,000 visitors - encouraging figures in movie marketing history.
This is a great example showing how well-made experiential content can have tremendous impact on marketing.
Check out our previous post for more details!
Develop Experience Programs Perfect for Your Brand!
The purpose of pop-up stores is 'conveying brand image or message.'
However, we found quite a few pop-up stores that lost sight of this essence, merely decorating prettily and operating only as photo zones without special experience programs. In such cases, negative reviews and evaluations of the brand experience inevitably dominate over positive effects.
Therefore, anyone considering a pop-up store must never forget this: pop-up stores should consider 'how to convey?' rather than 'how to display?'. Here's a representative example of an innovative experience program that positively elevated brand image!
🚘 Reureurereu 'Car-less Auto Shop'
The highest proportion of pop-up store visitors are people in their 20s.
However, this generation realistically lacks the economic means to own cars.
Therefore, automotive brands focus their marketing on motor shows for middle-aged customers rather than pop-up stores.
But in 5-10 years, they'll likely become some of the most loyal automotive brand customers!
Hyundai Motor didn't miss this opportunity.
They featured their SNS channel 'Reureurereu,' which became an influencer among Gen MZ, and operated a 'Car-less Auto Shop' pop-up store in Seongsu-dong.
The 'Reureurereu: Car-less Auto Shop' pop-up store offered everything from automotive knowledge tests called 'Car Life Ability Tests' to 'Parking Ability Tests' where visitors directly controlled RC cars, and from getting a driver's license to physically engaging 'tire changing' - visitors could indirectly experience extensive car-related knowledge through hands-on activities, with only the actual car missing.
This became a great example that all generations from their 20s to 40s could enjoy participating in.
Prepare Limited Edition Goods!
Careet conducted surveys and interviews with 283 Gen Z males and females who are major pop-up store visitors.
The teens and 20-somethings interviewed revealed their reasons for visiting pop-up stores: "Pop-up stores are like exhibition halls, movie theaters, and restaurants - they're entertainment venues" and "Stopping by nearby pop-up stores when going out has become as routine as exploring pretty cafes."
In other words, Gen Z considers visiting pop-up stores as part of their leisure activities, perceiving them as 'entertainment.'
This reveals a very important context for brand marketers.
People don't go out just to visit one pop-up store, and pop-up stores are merely one of many alternatives they might visit. In other words, they might visit multiple pop-up stores in a single day.
So to have your pop-up store chosen by people and keep your brand image continuously in customers' memories, there's something you need to prepare: 'limited edition goods.'
🏨 Realworld Seongsu 1st Anniversary Pop-up Store
'Realworld Seongsu,' which became a Seongsu-dong hotspot as an urban theme park, celebrated its first anniversary in August 2023.
To commemorate this, Realworld operated a pop-up store for about 10 days.
We provided welcome kits that matched the mystery hotel concept to all customers visiting the pop-up store, including 'Dagu' (Realworld Seongsu manager character) fans, stickers, postcards, and door tags reminiscent of hotels, and offered various limited edition goods through drawings.
But the important thing here is not just providing goods, but that the proper synergy effect occurs when combined with the unified worldview and brand experience programs mentioned earlier.
The 'Realworld Seongsu 1st Anniversary Pop-up Store' similarly designed experience programs using the Realworld app, such as 'Find the Hidden Hotel Key!' along with limited edition goods drawings, generating positive evaluations from many customers.
As a result, we achieved over 60-70% of our KPI targets with over 3,000 new visitors and over 2,000 event participants.
Check out our previous post for more details!
[Conclusion] The Future of Pop-up Stores
Pop-up stores are defined as experiential spaces that allow customers to indirectly experience brand values.
However, looking around, many recent pop-up stores are rushed to open and merely serve as photo zones.
Future pop-up stores must be different.
Given the significant costs involved, to create meaningful pop-up stores, we must develop content from storytelling to experience programs that allow customers to directly understand and learn about brands.
Various brand pop-up stores are scheduled at Realworld Seongsu throughout 2024, and we'll work hard to present meaningful pop-up stores to our customers based on the points we've outlined~! Thank you!
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