Out of the Box

The Pop Up Business

By Menachem Lubinsky on November 20 2006

The photo gallery of the 20’s and 30’s is filled with the pictures of peddlers standing alongside their horse-drawn carriages filled with goods to sell. These peddlers spent most of their days away from home, providing for their families back home. The marketing challenge for the peddlers was to make sure that when they arrived in a certain location, the buyers would be there. Some stuck to a precise schedule and had a good idea of what their customers needed. They competed just as the conventional retailer would today, selection of goods and price. They sometimes had the advantage of being able to pick up unique items as they journeyed from town to town, particularly to satisfy certain customers.

Then came the pushcart, which was a basic staple of the market. Far from an air conditioned store, vendors sometimes worked under the harshest conditions. In fact, the photo gallery is full of the vendors with snow-covered hoods. The oppressive heat of the Lower East Side in the summer was relentless to these vendors. The pushcart vendor could either be in a stationery market or move from location to location. His marketing challenge was to compete with the other pushcart vendors or to sell goods that none of the other pushcarts did.

Several years ago, I met a vendor at a flea market with a display of women’s dresses that he had unloaded from the back of a van. When I asked him where he was based, he answered that the van was his base. It seems that he traveled to flea markets throughout the Northeastern US the entire year. He knew the demands of each location well and frequently changed the selection of his stock based upon the location. His warehouse was in the garage of his Connecticut home. For the Catskills, he specifically brought along the more modest dresses for his Orthodox Jewish clients. Like the peddler, his marketing challenge was to position himself properly in each market with the right goods at the right prices. The vendor confided that he traveled 60% of the time, including most weekends.

For many years, H & R Block would set up a network of locations during tax time. They would have to research neighborhoods to determine whether there were enough potential clients who did not have private accountants. Next they would have to find the accountants and a location that would rent space on a temporary basis. Finally, they would have to get the word out that they were open for business. They would specifically look for high traffic areas to assure that their distinctive logo was visible and where they had a better chance of attracting walk-in traffic. They built an extremely successful business model that in many areas turned into permanent locations with a set clientele.

I have met exhibitors at trade shows that essentially live off the business they manage to drum up at trade shows. One salesman of the “relaxisizer” recliner had no showroom and no office; only a cellphone number and a truck where he moved his three chairs from show to show. When orders came in, he would have the manufacturer ship directly to the consumer. At the shows, he was all marketing, inviting people, some tired from spending many hours on their feet, to relax in one of his chairs. At each show, he sold enough chairs to pay for his expenses and still make a modest profit.

In New York City recently, Nike promoted a new $250 sneaker by opening a store in Downtown Manhattan for only a few hours. The company created a great deal of hype around the sneaker and within the span of a few hours, the store had virtually sold out all of its new expensive sneakers, not to speak of the profile that it had created for the costly sneaker. Like H & R Block, Nike had to find a store that more or less was set up to accommodate the temporary location. In Nike’s case, the store was part of a broader marketing strategy to market the sneaker. As a sign of the times, the store is referred to by marketing people as a “pop-up” store.

There is a fundamental principle that perhaps lends itself to some “out of the box” thinking. Imagine if you wanted to expand your business, but instead of making a substantial commitment to a new location, you found a storefront that was available for a week. You somehow managed to set up shop, get the word out that you were there, and moved out with profit in hand.

It could also be an opportunity to scout out a permanent location, if you were so inclined. In other words, you would actually conduct research about a location by being there to test the waters. If you get the sense that this might be a good location for your product or service, then you will no doubt consider a more permanent location.

This type of adventure in business is not for everyone. It assumes that you have a strong and going business at a fixed location, have the wherewithal to make the move, and are prepared to resort to some rather unconventional marketing. A good example of this is a museum-type store that opens near tourist areas. They include entrepreneurs who take their road show from location to location. They might be in a warm climate in the winter and in another location in the summer.

Of course, today’s modern business environment is filled with another sort of “branching out.” It includes opening branches in other locales, franchises, coop arrangements and being part of a network. But that kind of expansion requires much more of a substantial commitment and resources. The “pop-up” store may actually work better for some people who wish to grow responsibly. It requires somewhat of a different approach, including more of a “blitz” marketing program, but with some professional help is doable. So the next time you hear the word pop-up, it may not be referring to a greeting card where the message pops up. It may be a concept worth exploring.

Menachem Lubinsky (mlubinsky@lubicom.com) is President & CEO of LUBICOM Marketing Consulting (www.lubicom.com, 718.854.4450) a firm that specializes in strategic business and not-for-profit planning and implementation. LUBICOM is also well known for its role in developing such major events as Kosherfest, Jewish Expo and Jewish Marketplace.

Out of the Box is a collection of strategic marketing articles that Lubicom has published on various topics, trends and ideas in the marketing world. The articles have been published in the Hamodia weekly newspaper circulated on three continents to a readership of well over 100,000.

The name, "Out of the Box" is a term used frequently in business nowadays to describe creative thinking that is not the norm. It is meant to help a business pull away from the pack or separate oneself from the competition. It is to some extent fraught with risk, simply because it is not the run of the mill thinking, but it is at the same time the key to reaching the next opportunity.