Power of the Pop-up
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Kocoplay and Sustainablee: Chew heaven with a coir toy and eco-friendly products from recycled fabrics
Pop-up markets are all the rage these days. They are a significant part of a brand’s retail strategy and it’s not just new brands on tight budgets that use them to launch products. Well established brands like Adidas and Gucci are in on the act. Even virtual shopping giants like Amazon have realised there’s something to be said for allowing ‘flesh and blood’ customers the opportunity to examine physical goods within a brick-and-mortar building. For known brands it’s all about creating a ‘buzz’ for their offers. In a recent survey on retail trends, 51% of established brands used Pop-ups to increase brand visibility.
But, I don’t like Pop-ups and I’ll tell you why…
The reason why Pop-ups work so well in creating the ‘buzz’ that brands yearn for, is because they’re here today and gone tomorrow. They capitalise on our FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and our lust for new experiences – which as we know in Colombo is so desperately sought after, it’s practically an epidemic. In Colombo we will go to the opening of a handbag if it’s the latest fad in town – just to be there!
It’s that very impermanence that puts me off. For me, being introduced to a new product is a little like a new romance. You bump into each other, there is an attraction, an interest. What do you do, you wonder. Why haven’t I seen you before?
You make a purchase and go on to develop a relationship with that brand – to fall in love with it (or not).
You can’t do this at a Pop-up. You can’t come back next week to buy more goodies because the store would have vanished. You’ll be ‘stood up’ or ‘ghosted’ as the young ones say, wondering when and where you will ever see it again.
Of course, these days brands have social media footprints that you can stalk, to find out more about them. And with a shopping page, you can happily continue to purchase your favourite products at the click of a button.
When I crossed the rail tracks a fortnight ago to enter the Pink Salt restaurant in Dehiwala for a family brunch, I was horrified to see a melee of people around tables full of stuff. Oh dear, I thought – a jumble sale. My clan disappeared into the throng, so I was forced to take a look.
What I saw was impressive. Creativity, innovation and just the most wonderful quirky products. Products with heart. Products I could fall in love with.
Shop Soapy AF was the first stall to entice me. Not the catchiest name for a business I suppose but their products certainly caught my eye. Glass jars of brightly coloured, deliciously fragranced creamy concoctions– bath ‘butters’ to be exact. These lovely jars of mint, lilac and macchiato heaven were ‘twofers’ (two for one)! They could be used as creamy body cleansers but also as shaving cream!
Later, looking at their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/soapyaf I could see that Shop Soapy AF had a beautifully photographed product range. From fragranced soaps to salt scrubs for problem skin and their legendary bath butters, they seemed to have cleverly focused on a few quality products. The page had extensive discount offers and an eco-friendly returns policy on empty jars. Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick was a huge champion of recycling product bottles when she started her brand. It minimised plastic waste but also made significant savings on production costs.
Unfortunately – and this is where I become insecure in my romance with Shop Soapy AF, as I clicked around their Facebook page, I could find nowhere to make a purchase. This made me feel rather unsupported as a customer. Wonderful posters with year-end sales offers don’t tell me how to avail of them. Also, they seem to want to keep their prices a secret. I could, of course, drop them a line, or give them a call, but it’s all rather inconvenient compared to the ‘click and pay’ point of sale that is the lifeblood of an online retail store. It was also unclear if their products were stocked anywhere else. I would most certainly have rushed out and bought more if I knew where.
The other stall that almost plunged me into poverty was called Sustainablee https://www.sustainableeyours.com/ . Stunning tote bags created from recycled saree fabrics and batiks, beautiful fabric document wallets and delightful year-planners with covers created from recycled plastic fragments and recycled paper pages, were too good to miss.
Whilst the products at the Pop-up stall certainly drew me in and created a buying frenzy (I bought everything on the stall!), Sustainablee’s website then did the trick of telling me more about the company – its goals and aspirations – once I had come down from my purchase ‘high’ and wanted to know more about the brand, including where to go for my next fix of purchases (you can never have enough year planners!).
This lifestyle brand is most certainly a Pop-up success story. Started in 2018 at the GoodMarket by founder Dinushika Gunaratne, their social enterprise business model sources locally produced items sustainably created by artisans around the country. Their products are available in 25 stores in Colombo and are also exported to Switzerland and the US.
Having marketing collaterals like a website or Instagram account ready to go is, I suppose, an absolute must to cement connections with potential customers. Otherwise, the impermanence of the Pop-up that works so well to generate buzz can become a double-edged sword, if your brand presence also disappears when the Pop-up pops off.
Before I could tear myself away from the Pink Salt pola, I came across one final stall that barked at me. As a canine lover of the most rabid persuasion, it was a wonderful pleasure to meet the owners of Kocoplay who sat behind a table laden with balls, chews and tugs made from natural coconut fibres (coir) https://www.facebook.com/kocoplay/
I have often lamented having to pay extortionate amounts of money in Colombo pet stores for chemically laden plastic toys. To have a coir toy made of natural fibres that actually cleans doggy teeth is so simple it’s genius. I hope that Kocoplay’s founders have trademarked their superb products. It is obvious from talking to the owners of this brand, that they have put a lot of research and care into their creation. For a true dog lover, that speaks volumes. To know that a product has been made with the wellness of my dog in mind means I will happily pay a premium and be as loyal to that brand as my doggies are to me.
Already exporting these natural undyed toys, the owners told me that whilst most dogs enjoyed playing and chewing the coir, some nervous dogs were instinctively using them as comforters to reduce anxiety. Their special offer of 10% off three toys was a no brainer for me. As I write this, I can hear the rhythmic rasp of canines being cleaned as my dogs happily lie under my table munching on their Kocoplay toys.
Whilst still not a great fan of Pop-up stalls, I cannot help but marvel at the creativity and ingenuity of our local traders (and restaurateurs) – many of whom are young Sri Lankans passionately promoting all the good things this country has to offer. They demonstrate our little island’s resilience and refusal to be broken by tough times, insisting that we sail through them sustainably scrubbed, smelling great and still caring for our planet, and our pets! I salute them one and all.
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