By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Pop-up stores, which open for a limited period of time in major cities and then close, are gaining popularity as a new marketing tool here.
A couple of those temporary shops, also known as guerilla stores are scheduled to open this month. Kuho, a fashion brand of Cheil Industries, plans to launch four pop-up stores this week to promote its new lineup.
Some limited items will be available under a new logo "Kuho Plus" for just 30 days.
"The stores will give both regular and new customers a chance to experience the brand in a different way," a spokesman for Cheil Industries said.
Communication giant SK Telecom is also operating a similar concept store during an annual design fair here.
The T-Room store, which opened Saturday in southern Seoul to run through Oct. 29 in line with an ongoing Seoul Design Olympiad 2009, is bit different from usual retail shops as it offers a space to experience "T" mobile brand services.
Such temporary shops have been rapidly emerging as a successful facilitator of brands in many countries of late. Korea is especially regarded as having a bigger potential for the new concept thanks to advanced online networks, where Internet users can spread word fast through blogs and online communities.
Most of those guerilla stores are targeting hot and trend-setting spots favored by younger people to surprise consumers with temporary performances that can give them a feeling of exclusivity over a limited time span.
Following a store set up by Nike for a month at Hongik University in Seoul in February, Coca-Cola opened a similar venue in the lucrative Gangnam area for its latest "vitamin water" product in June.
The Glaceau store turned out to be a success beyond expectations, as products there sold out in two months, four months faster than the company's plan.
The stores are an effective way for promotion because they offer opportunities to check responses of consumers, and to try out new products before full-scale marketing, experts say.
Often combined with diverse cultural events to gain more attention, they are less costly than television ads, and the stores generate publicity for new brands.
Thanks to these advantages, more pop-up stores are expected to be set up by more varied wholesalers.
For Cheil Industries, its Kuho stores will also decide the destiny of its latest products. Sales there will decide if they will be released to a wider market at a later date, the company said.