The holidays serve up an excellent opportunity for retailers and consumer brands to surprise and delight their customers with a temporary, unconventional surprise.

Consider pop-up retail. Retailers use pop-up concepts to reach new markets, reinforce their brand and test concepts more cost-effectively. These experiences also yield a large return in marketing buzz that usually outlasts the concepts themselves.

Target, JC Penney, IKEA and even consumer brands as diverse as Nike, Meow Mix and Crown Royal Whisky have employed these temporary stores to cure the consumers’ case of retail boredom and leave them wanting more.

Target-To-Go
Target is known for experimenting with pop-up retail and this holiday is no different. Target-To-Go kicked off today in New York, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. The stores will only be open through the weekend. Come Monday they’ll be closed. Permanently.

According to New York Magazine: “this pop-up isn’t an actual shop you can walk into. Photos of the 50 items available are printed on a menu-like page along with prices and a brief description. Various items are displayed in the “store” windows grouped into $25-and-under and $50-and-under sections. Shoppers file into a line, check off what they want on a clipboard, and snake over to the front window, where their gifts are delivered to them already wrapped.”

The Down-Low on Pop-Up
What are some keys to making pop-up retail work? Like any word-of-mouth marketing effort, consider some of these tips.

Measure: Pop-up retail is less to make incremental sales and more to generate buzz about the brand. While sales can be a success metric, brand awareness is the bigger goal. Target To-Go delivers on the brand’s promise for designer products at lower prices.

Promote: Pop-up experiences build consumer anticipation and buzz by making themselves exclusive and distinct. But if they’re too exclusive, no one will hear about them.

Target is promoting the To-Go concept by hiding gift tags around each city and leaking hints about their location via Twitter. This in turn is generating plenty of conversation and consumer generated media in addition to the traditional media coverage. Target also partnered with the Salvation Army to add a charitable facet to the To-Go promotion. The Salvation Army identified families in need who are receiving a $100 Target Gift Card for holiday shopping.

Tie-In: Keep in mind the rest of your marketing efforts when considering a pop-up opportunity. Retailers and other brands should consider other relevant events they might use as a setting for their concept. This could actually leverage an existing sponsorship investment to offset the cost of attracting the right audience. Tapping into value add opportunities through traditional media is also an opportunity to increase awareness of the pop-up event.

Less is More
While pop-up retail is designed to make a big impression; a big environment is not necessarily required to make it happen. According to Kurt Parker of Nike Asia Pacific, “Focus on saying less, but say it really well to generate more excitement than you might otherwise around a product.”

Pop-up retail brings a brand to life and it brings a brand to consumers instead of simply waiting for them to come in-store. It will be interesting to see if more examples pop-up in 2010.

:: Kevin Dugan, Director of Social Marketing, Empower MediaMarketing
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