2 December 2016 385 words, 2 min. read

Dove opens first popup store in Paris : it’s superb

By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab PhD in marketing, director of IntoTheMinds
Dove opened in Paris its first ever popup store on 9 November 2016 in the Saint-Lazare neighborhood (105 rue Saint-Lazare) and the least we can say is that it was impressive. Unlike other popup stores, this one is just massive […]

Dove opened in Paris its first ever popup store on 9 November 2016 in the Saint-Lazare neighborhood (105 rue Saint-Lazare) and the least we can say is that it was impressive. Unlike other popup stores, this one is just massive and resembles very much a “normal” store in terms of surface, personnel, and diversity of experiences proposed. In addition it has a very “clean” look, much aligned with Dove positioning.

The store itself is divided into several areas, split on two levels.

The first level is basically a reception where there is not much to see, except some Dove products imported directly from Japan which shows that the brand proposes different “recipes” depending on the type of skin. The heart of the popup store is on the first level where three main areas can be distinguished.

The first one, in the center, is a booth where Dove soaps can be personalized (engraved) and bought in a nice golden box. From a marketing point of view, it’s pretty magical to see a mass-production product like a Dove soap turned into something premium. You scratch a little bit the surface, add a golden box and sell it for 6€ a piece.

The second one, on the right-hand side, is a booth where customers can get professional advice on the Dove products, test them and -of course- buy them.

The third one, on the left-hand side, a cosy corner had been set up for customers to relax and bloggers to work. On 9 November, when we visited the popup store on the first day, myriad (female) bloggers were there to report about this small retail event.

 

Conclusion

Dove’s initiative shows that popup stores have fully integrated the palette of marketers’ tool for retail marketing. When you look back at popup stores launched 3 years ago, most of them were simple (even simplistic) but their mere opening was sufficient to attract the attention. Today this has changed completely. One must put a lot of effort (and money) into designing a popup shop to make it worth a visit. Just have a look at the pictures below and you’ll get easily an idea of how much money was poured into conceiving the Dove store. This trend can be observed elsewhere. Look for instance at our report on the Thierry Mugler and Armani Box popup stores.



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