Marketing Matters

I had quite the experience watching consumer interaction with the Pop Shop retail model at Knit Wit this past week. I was very curious to see the pop-up shop in action. The results were a little surprising. I found that many people were instantly attracted to the clothing rack full of MM Lafleaur dresses, and the glass case holding Adornia Fine Jewelry, yet no one seemed to gravitate towards using the iPad to make purchases. Maybe it was not clear or easy to use, or maybe customers didn’t see the correlation between the pop-up shop and the retail store space.  It was important for me to watch how the customers shopped the exclusive and limited-availability brands because it will help me visually merchandise future pop-up shops with Pop Shop. I am working with the creators of Pop Shop and Drexel’s Visual Merchandising class to come up with a creative and engaging solution for many pop-up shops in the future. I’m excited to meet with the class next week, and hope to inspire their creativity.

             

            For the next trunk show and pop-up shops around Philly, I hope to create really interesting displays…but what I’m really interested in, is how to successfully market for the limited-time pop-up shops. I’m realizing it is very difficult to generate buzz for a 2-week event. I have a network of classmates and friends that I can update through social media. The brands and stores have a list of customers that they can send e-mail blasts to, and we can even get press to cover the event as well. It is more difficult to understand what drives the customer in, and purchase products. I hope to learn, or better understand this concept in the upcoming weeks.