Pop-up retail : the effects of an experiential marketing strategy on customer experience and image

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Name: Rohini Vanita Bhaggoe

Student number: 10077545

Date: 18 July 2014

Version: Final Version

Qualification: MSc. in Business Studies Institution: University of Amsterdam 1st Supervisor: prof. dr. J.H.J.P. Tettero 2nd Supervisor: drs. ing. A.C.J. Meulemans

The effects of an experiential marketing strategy on

customer experience and image.

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Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of Pop-Up retailing on customer experience and the image of a company and to analyze how this

influence differs from the influence of traditional brick- and- mortar stores.

Additionally, the role of customer innovativeness in these relationships is researched.

Design/ methodology/ approach – In this study an experiment is performed with the factors store type (Pop-Up store versus traditional brick- and- mortar store) and product category (luxury versus regular products). A total of 105 experiments were distributed and collected via the online questionnaire program Qualtrics.

Findings – The findings of this study state that the influence of Pop-Up retail on customer experience and image is positive, however there is no difference in

influence between Pop-Up stores and traditional brick- and- mortar stores. Customer innovativeness does not have a moderating role in these relationships. Furthermore, the best combination to influence customer experience and image is a Pop-Up store for a luxury brand.

Practical implications – The study provides interesting and relevant information for companies in the Fashion/ Beauty industry in the use of Pop-Up stores for their brands.

Originality/ value – This research brings understanding in the impact of the

relatively new concept of Pop-Up retailing in customer experience and image and the opinion of consumers about Pop-Up retail.

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1. Introduction

New York, London, Sydney and Amsterdam…Pop-Up stores are literally popping up everywhere in the world. Pinterest (2014) even devoted a whole Pinterest page to this phenomenon in order for users to upload pictures of unique and special Pop-Up stores. A Pop- Up store is a short- term and often-unannounced retail establishment, which offers unique experiences for customers (Ryu, 2011). As purposes of a Pop-Up store are to attract and engage with customers and increase awareness at minimum costs, these stores are designed in an extraordinary way to really stand out (Nufer, 2013). According to Bergqvist and Leinoff (2011) the thought behind Pop-up retail is simple: “if products can come and go, why cannot stores?” (p.8).

Pop-Up retailing as a new experiential marketing strategy was introduced in 2004, meaning it is a relatively new concept. Consequently, little research has been conducted on this topic. Surchi (2010) defined this phenomenon and considered the use of it in the fashion sector; Niehm, Fiore, Jeong and Kim (2007) provided baseline information for retailers regarding consumer’s perception of Pop-Up retailing and Kim, Fiore, Niehm & Jeong (2010) researched consumer psychographic

characteristics and the effect on behavioral intentions and attitude. The research on this topic leaves multiple gaps to be filled as the current literature only entails some aspects of this phenomenon. In this so-called “Experience Economy”, where everything revolves around the customer experience (Pine & Gilmore, 1998), it is essential that the influence of Pop-Up retail on customer experience is researched.

Another interesting gap in the literature is the lack of research on the influence of Up retail on image. There are various reasons for companies to incorporate Pop-Up retailing in its marketing strategy. Some companies want to increase awareness, offer a unique experience to their customers and want to create a more positive attitude towards the company (Niehm et al., 2007). For companies that do not enjoy great fame, brick- and- mortar stores and a strong image, Pop-Up retailing might be a way to increase awareness and create a positive image.

Today’s consumers have limited time and are better informed due to social media and other virtual communities on the Internet (Surchi, 2010). Pop-Up retail has the

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potential to reach consumers with its unconventional method of brand promotion. In order to do so it is important to know how Pop-Up retailing influences customer experience and the image of a company. Therefore, this thesis will be an addition to the small amount of current literature on this topic and can be of great value for companies, who seek to increase awareness and interaction with their consumers with a low-cost marketing strategy (Marciniak & Budnarowska, 2009; Gogoi, 2007).

But how do the Pop-Up stores affect companies that already have that strong image and brick- and- mortar stores? Is the effect of a Pop-Up store similar to the effect of a traditional store or is there a difference? This is particularly interesting as a number of luxury brands, for example Guerlain and Hermès in Paris, opened up Pop-Up stores near their traditional stores with the intention to attract other types of customers than their usual target group. (de Lassus & Freire, 2014).

The research question of this thesis is as follows:

“How does Pop- Up retailing influence Customer Experience and Image and how does this differ from traditional stores?”

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the influence of Pop-Up retailing on customer experience and image. Nowadays, when the importance of experiences are increasing, companies could adopt the experiential strategy of Pop- Up retailing to provide added value for their customers by offering new and unique experiences and interacting with their customers. Additionally, this research aims to determine whether the effect of Pop-Up stores differs from the effect of traditional stores and if the product category (luxury products versus regular products) also has an influence on this relationship. The remainder of this thesis is structured as follows: In the literature review Pop-Up retailing, customer experience and image and the

relationships among them will be explained in more detail and a research question will be formulated. Hereafter the methodology follows. With the use of an

experiment, primary data will be collected in order to answer the research question and the results will be elaborated extensively. In the final section a conclusion and a discussion of managerial implications will be provided, with the addition of

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2. Literature review

In 2004 the Japanese brand, Comme des Garçons, opened a guerilla Pop-Up Store in an old bookshop in Berlin for the period of one year in order to create awareness and to generate buzz (Niehm et al., 2007) and this brand has since then been considered as the initiator of Pop-Up retailing (Picot- Coupey, 2012; Vogue, 2007). A Pop- Up store is a short- term and often-unannounced retail establishment, which offers unique experiences for customers (Ryu, 2011). The uniqueness of these stores is emphasized by the limited time-availability (Surchi, 2010) and sense of urgency (Marciniak & Budnarowska, 2009), but also by the highly experiential interaction between company and customer, which created accessibility in the customer’s mind (Niehm et al., 2007). Pop-Up retailing is one of the terms used for this type of experiential marketing; other terms are guerilla marketing and flash retailing.

Most research on this subject focuses on the fashion industry, for the reason that this specific industry is rapidly changing with a brand new collection every season and relies much on social relationships and Word-of-Mouth advertising of the newest trends. Besides, in the fashion industry it is important for designers to intrigue and attract customers. This could be achieved by making use of a Pop-Up store, which could be designed extravagantly. According to Marciniak and Budnarowska (2009) social media is a very important aspect for Pop- Up retailing, as Pop-Up stores gain awareness via the social media use of consumers and the online sharing of

information by their followers on various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Since the introduction of the phenomenon of Pop- Up retailing, companies in varying markets have adopted this strategy/ marketing tool for different reasons and its popularity is still increasing (Gregory, 2009; Gogoi, 2007). Companies, that already enjoy high awareness among consumers, use Pop- Up retailing to further increase awareness of their brands, test new products and markets, strengthen their

relationships with the consumers, improve engagement and interactivity and introduce limited editions of their products and exclusive lines (Surchi, 2010; Ryu, 2011;

Kingston, 2006; Gregory, 2009). It also creates a good opportunity for market

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the products can be used for further development, adaptations or even the decision to cancel the product launch (Koch, 2005). Additionally, companies can test whether the right target group is being addressed. An example of a luxury brand with high brand awareness that has used Pop-Up retail for the introduction of exclusive lines is the French brand Hermès.

Case 1 Hermès

Figure 1 Impression of the Hermès Pop-Up Store "J'aime mon carré". Hermès, a French manufacturing company of quality and luxurious goods since 1837 (Hermès, 2014), has been participating in the Pop-Up retail trend since 2009. One of the most prestigious items in the Hermès collection is the Hermès scarf. For the launch of the new website and a fan magazine (also called fanzine), Hermès brought in British photographer Matt Irwin to create the “J’aime mon carré” (I love my scarf campaign) and to show fans how to wear their favorite Hermès scarf (Vogue, 2010). Additionally, the brand opened up a Pop-Up store in the Liberty department store in London.

In November 2010, two more Pop-Up stores with the “J’aime mon carré” theme were opened for a three-day period at two other locations in London, namely Shoreditch and West London (Vogue, 2010). The stores were staffed with experts to teach fans how to wear and tie their new scarfs. The use of the Pop-Up stores increased brand awareness of Hermès and presumably led to an increase in sales of the Hermès scarf.

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Figure 2 Impression of the Hermès Pop- Up Store in Paris.

For a 3-month period in May 2012, the brand opened up a Pop-Up store near its main boutique in Paris on the Rue de Sèvres 8 (Vogue, 2012). Hermès dedicated this entire Pop-Up store to the women’s footwear Spring/ Summer collection of 2012, but with an extra bonus: a sneak peak of the Fall/ Winter collection 2012-2013. Dion and Arnould (2011) emphasize the importance of ensuring the accessibility of the products, while maintaining the image and charisma of the brand. Hermès accomplished this by hiring Stéphane Parmentier, a famous French designer and artistic director with his own interior decoration agency (Ormond, 2014), who designed the interior of the Pop-Up Store.

Opening Pop- Up stores meant a lot of buzz by bloggers and other press for Hermès. Pictures and headlines about the store were popping up everywhere on the Internet and Hermès enjoyed the increase in brand awareness (KPMG, 2011).

New and small brands and businesses, with a relatively low brand awareness among consumers, show an interest in Pop- Up retailing as well, as this gives them a good opportunity to create awareness and show their product, without the many costs of having a brick- and- mortar store and expensive advertising campaigns (Marciniak & Budnarowska, 2009). Especially, the temporary nature of a Pop- Up store drives the costs down as these stores are designed to be open for a short period of time, varying between a couple of days and a few months, while brick- and- mortar stores usually come with a five year contract (Kim et al., 2010; Surchi, 2010). But also online companies, that actually have brand awareness among their consumers and want to

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expand to the ‘real world’ in order to provide their customers with a ‘real’ experience, instead of only the online experience, are easily attracted to the idea of the Pop-Up store (Khan, 2014).

Case 2 Lipton Ice Tea BRISK

“A Blast of bold refreshing ice tea… That’s Brisk baby!” This catchy phrase is part of the marketing campaign for the PepsiCo Lipton partnership, a joint venture between PepsiCo and Unilever (Brisk, 2014). Brisk offers ice tea with multiple flavors, such as raspberry, peach and mango dragon fruit and focuses especially on the youth, children who can drink this beverage in between classes (Marketing Tribune, 2013). Although this brand was introduced in the United States of America in 1991 and has been successful with annual revenue that surpasses one billion dollars, the brand remained unknown in other markets (such as the Dutch market) and is launching the product here today using Pop-Up Stores as one of their marketing strategies.

Figure 3 Impression of the Brisk Pop-Up Store in Amsterdam.

In the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam ‘Store for Brands’ accommodates brands and companies with a retail space especially fit for Pop-Up retailing purposes (Store for Brands, 2014). Brisk turned this retail space into a skating area, where people, mainly children, could win cans of Brisk and other cool prices, if they managed to ‘pull a trick’, which is a special skating trick. The Pop-Up store was designed to give the

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skaters room for their tricks, while still displaying the Brisk beverages and the marketing campaign in the store.

With this Pop-Up store and the competitive skating element, Brisk managed to increase the consumer awareness of the Brisk brand and is since 2013 being sold in several stores and almost every supermarket in the Netherlands, ranging from supermarkets such as Albert Heijn and Jumbo to sneaker store Coach

(FoodPersonality, 2013).

2.1 Pop-Up Stores versus Traditional Stores

Although a Pop- Up store can be located in a traditional retail space, there are significant differences between a Pop-Up Store and a traditional brick- and- mortar store. Especially in the current economy, where the customer experience is key (Pine & Gilmore, 1998), customers expect engaging experiences, personalization and participation in their overall retail experience (Niehm et al., 2007). Experiential marketing is all about telling a story and providing the customer with a unique experience, instead of a traditional store, where the customer can simply fulfill basic needs. Customers usually do not expect to engage with the product, brand or company on an emotional level, however, engagement is facilitated with an experiential

marketing strategy such as Pop-Up retail.

Pop-Up stores are attracting customers, who are innovative and seek new experiences, while traditional brick- and- mortar stores and similar types of venues are challenged to keep up with the shifting customer preferences (Kim, Jolly, Fairhurst & Atkins, 2005; Niehm et al., 2007). This thesis focuses on the difference between a traditional brick- and- mortar store and the new experiential Pop-Up store.

2.2 Customer Experience

Due to the fact that Pop-Up retail differs from traditional marketing, the attitudes and intentions towards Pop-Up Stores might also be different (Ryu, 2011). In their research Kim et al. (2010) use the Theory of Reasoned Action of Fishbein and Ajzen

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(1975, as cited in Kim et al., 2010) to conclude that Pop-Up retail is an effective retail strategy for consumers who enjoy shopping and who are looking for innovation. The psychographic characteristic of the customer, such as customer innovativeness, increases the belief that Pop-Up retail offers novelty, which stimulates a positive feeling regarding Pop-Up retail. This ultimately leads to the intention to patronage towards Pop-Up retail. They state that an experiential strategy allows a brand to offer their customers a unique and sensational experience when purchasing products in a Pop- Up store.

Pine & Gilmore (1998) point out the importance of these experiences in the current economy, based on their statement that the current economy can be seen as an ‘experience economy’, centered around customer experience. Meyer and Schwager (2007) define customer experience as an experience that “encompasses every aspect of a company’s offering- the quality of customer care, but also advertising, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, and reliability”(p.1).

Pop- Up retailing has a positive influence on customer experience, because the company’s offering is the most important aspect and the whole Pop-Up store is built around the product. It is the company’s objective to create an amazing customer experience in order to achieve a good image in the mind of the customer. Pop-Up retail also expands the reach and awareness of the brand, with low risks and low costs (KPMG, 2011) Although a traditional brick- and- mortar store is also presumed to have a positive influence on the customer experience, it is expected that the positive influence of the Pop-Up store is greater than the positive influence of the traditional brick- and- mortar store, because the Pop-Up store is a form of experiential marketing and, therefore, focuses more on delivering a good customer experience. The first hypothesis of this study can be stated as follows:

H1: The positive influence of a Pop-Up store on customer experience is greater than the positive influence of a traditional brick- and- mortar store on customer experience.

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2.3 Image

According to Chun (2005) ‘corporate reputation affects the way in which various stakeholders behave towards an organization, influencing employee retention, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty’ (p.91). A positive and favorable

reputation attracts investors and positively correlates with an increase in profitability for the company. Fombrun en van Riel (1997) point out that reputation can be viewed from different perspectives. From an economic perspective, reputation is seen as a trait or the perception of others on the values of the company. From a strategic view, reputation is an asset and can be considered a unique internal feature of the firm, which is difficult to duplicate or imitate by competitors. In marketing reputation is often used interchangeably with image.

The corporate reputation can be divided into three core elements: identity, desired identity and image (Chun, 2005). The organizational identity is the employee’s perception of the company and how they see themselves. The desired identity is how the company wants other to perceive the company and refers to mostly visual cues, such as the company logo, slogan or brand name. The corporate image is the way in which others (e.g. customers) perceive the company, which is linked to the emotions and feelings of customers towards the company. Dobni and Zinkhan (1990) define image as “a concept of a brand that is held by the consumer” (p.118). It is possible to form an image of the company, without having any real experience with the company. As this concept is subjective, marketing activities are able to influence the consumer’s image of the company.

Schmitt (1999) adds that both image and product quality are important factors for consumers in their purchasing decisions. This emphasizes the importance of a favorable image and Pop-Up retail just might help with the creation of this image, as it exposes customers to a multi-sensory experience and gives companies the

opportunity to communicate their brand values face-to face (Surchi, 2010).

Nonetheless, it is beneficial when a company has a well- established name and/or reputation considering that consumers are more confident trying brands when they are already familiar with the company (McDonald, Chernatony & Harris, 2001), but

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consumers are also likely to infer positive attitudes towards the products bearing the brand name (Lee & Ganesh, 1998). The hypothesis is stated as follows

H2: The positive influence of a Pop-Up store on the image of a company is greater than the positive influence of a traditional brick- and- mortar store on the image of a company.

2.4 Luxury products versus Regular products

In the current economy there are many different markets, product categories and target groups, which means that generalizing the influence of a Pop-Up store or a traditional brick- and- mortar store for all product categories will simply not suffice. In this thesis a distinction will be made between products in the luxury category and regular products (products for everyday use/ necessities). Vickers and Renand (2003) state that there is no clear definition of luxury products, but a luxury good can be differentiated from regular or non-luxury goods by the extent to which they satisfy functional, experiential and actionalism instrumental performance. In the past ten to fifteen years the market for luxury products has grown extensively, due to increased competition and globalization and the contribution of flexible payments systems (such as credit cards and iDeal). To cope with the intense competition, companies attempt to increase the level of added value by positioning their products as ‘luxury products’ or targeting niche markets. The sectors that are currently regarded as the sectors that hold luxury products are perfume, jewelry, watches, cars, tableware (porcelain and crystal), giftware and clothing.

As luxury products attempt to satisfy the functional and experiential needs of consumers, is expected that luxury products have a more positive influence on the customer experience and image than regular products or necessary products. The hypotheses are stated as follows:

H3: The positive influence of luxury products on the customer experience of a company is greater than the positive influence of regular products on the customer experience of a company.

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H4: The positive influence of luxury products on the image of a company is greater than the positive influence of regular products on the image of a company.

With regards to the experiential function of the Pop-Up store and the fact that luxury products try to satisfy the experiential needs of consumers, it is expected that the combination of Pop-Up store and luxury products will have the most positive

influence on both customers experience and image. The research questions are stated as follows:

RQ1: Which combination of store type (Pop-Up store/ traditional store) and product category (luxury/ regular) will have the most positive influence on the customer experience?

RQ2: Which combination of store type (Pop-Up store/ traditional store) and product category (luxury/ regular) will have the most positive influence on the image?

2.5 Customer Innovativeness

Pop- Up retailing could satisfy the needs of innovative consumers for new and

memorable experiences in the marketing of goods and services (Kim et al., 2010; Pine & Gilmore, 1998; Ryu, 2011). This form of retailing is considered experiential as consumers have the possibility to explore and test the products and communicate face-to-face with the brand (Niehm et al., 2007), which is beneficial, because personal (direct) experience (almost) always exceeds advertisements and reviews of others (Singh, Balusubramanian & Chakraborty, 2000). Additionally, experiential marketing focuses on the customer experience and emotional values instead of only the

functional values in traditional marketing (Schmitt, 2010; Surchi, 2010).

Consumers are always craving for exciting and innovative experiences in their lives, although the level of innovativeness is different for every person as this is a sensory experience (Goldsmith & Hofacker, 1991). Im, Bayus & Mason (2003, as cited in Jordaan & Simpson, 2006) conceptualize customer innovativeness as the willingness

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to buy new and different products, rather than remain with previous purchases and old consumption habits. Highly innovative consumers take more risk, show greater social participation, have more knowledge and are more involved in the product category and usually have great media exposure (Jordaan & Simpson, 2006). High innovators are especially important for companies as they generate revenue as buyers of newly launched products and function as their word-of-mouth representatives and spread information about these products. Kim et al. (2009) used the Theory of Reasoned Action of Fishbein to explain that the psychographic characteristic Customer Innovativeness ultimately leads to positive feelings toward Pop-Up retail, meaning that they would purchase products at such a store and recommend the store to friends and family.

According to Reichheld (2003) customer loyalty is “the willingness of someone to make an investment or personal sacrifice in order to strengthen a relationship” (p.3). This means that the customer is not simply satisfied, but satisfied in a way that they will purchase more often and will recommend the brand or company to their peers (Word-of-Mouth advertising). The one question you need to ask customers is: “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague on a scale from zero to ten?” By subtracting the percentage of customers that are unlikely to recommend the brand (detractors) by the percentage of customers who are extremely willing to do so (promotors), the end result is a Net-Promoter Score (NPS). With a NPS higher than 50%, it can be stated that customers are very satisfied with the brand or company and that loyalty is high. With an experiential strategy, such as Pop-Up retail, a high NPS score could mean more buzz, more customers and more awareness, as Word-of-Mouth is an important form of advertising for Pop-Up retail.

The hypotheses regarding customer innovativeness are stated as follows:

H5: The influence of store type on customer experience will be higher for customers who are highly innovative, than for customers with a lower degree of innovation.

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H6: The influence of product category on customer experience will be higher for customers who are highly innovative, than for customers with a lower degree of innovation.

H7: The influence of store type on image will be higher for customers who are highly innovative, than for customers with a lower degree of

innovation.

H8: The influence of product category on image will be higher for customers who are highly innovative, than for customers with a lower degree of innovation.

The relationships are shown in the conceptual model.

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3. Methodology

The research objective of this thesis is to fill in a gap in the marketing literature on Pop-Up retail and experiential marketing by determining the influence of Pop-Up retailing on the customer experience and the image of a company. In order to do so an experiment will be performed, as this is the best way to study causal links between variables (Saunders & Lewis, 2012), but also to control external factors, meaning that the effect can be ascribed to the manipulation (Boeije, ‘t Hart & Hox, 2009).

3.1 Design

The overall design is a 2x2 between- subjects factorial design, with the factors ‘type of store’ (Pop-Up store versus traditional brick- and- mortar store) and ‘product category’ (luxury products versus regular products). Each participant was randomly ascribed to one out of four conditions: Pop-Up store/luxury product, Pop-Up store/ regular product, traditional store/ luxury product or traditional store/ regular product (Figure 5).

3.2 Sampling & Subjects

The sampling methods used for this experiment are convenience sampling and

snowball sampling. Due to the limited time of this experiment subjects were used who were readily available and close at hand. Additionally, they were asked to send out the experiment to their peers, creating a snowball effect. The use of nonprobability sampling also means that the external validity cannot be ensured and the

generalizability to the entire population is not entirely accurate.

A total of 105 experiments were distributed and collected via the online questionnaire program Qualtrics, e-mail and social media sites. In this experiment subjects of different genders, different levels of education and in different age categories

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Table 1.

Profile of consumers’ personal and demographic characteristics.

Socio- demographic variables Frequency %

Gender (n = 105) Male 39 37.1% Female 66 62.9% Age group (n = 105) Under 15 3 2.9% 16-25 66 62.8% 26-35 20 19.1% 36-45 10 9.5% 46-55 4 3.8% 56-65 2 1.9% Educational level (n= 105) Primary school 0 0% VMBO 6 5.7% HAVO 4 3.8% VWO 3 2.9% MBO 14 13.3% HBO 17 16.2% WO 61 58.1%

As can be seen in the table 37.1 percent of the participants of this experiment is male and 62.9 percent is female. The age of the participants varies between 14 and 65 years with a mean of 27.2 years (SD= 8.53). From the results can be derived that the

majority of the participants enjoyed a higher education (HAVO, VWO, HBO, WO), which means that this experiment is not an accurate reflection of the current Dutch population, as in real life the percentage of higher educated people in the Netherlands was 40 percent in 2012 (Appendix 1) (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur &

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3.3 Procedure

This experiment was created and distributed via the online survey program Qualtrics (Appendix 4). The participants received a website link, either via e-mail or social media and, thus, could participate in their own and natural habitat. The ability to participate in one’s own habitat excludes social desirable answers to questions, as the researcher is not present. The consequence, however, is that it could be that the participant is not motivated enough to fill out the entire questionnaire.

The experiment started with a short introduction, where participants were informed about the anonymous processing of the data (informed consent) and the course of the experiment. In the introduction it was also pointed out that there are no right or wrong answers and that all that matters is the personal opinion and thoughts of the

participants. Then three demographic questions regarding gender, age and educational level followed.

Then the stimuli was shown and participants were asked to watch the short video clip. The clips/ conditions were randomized, which means that every participants was randomly ascribed to one out of four conditions and either saw a Pop-Up store or a traditional store of either a luxury brand or a regular brand. After the short clip a manipulation check followed in order to check the application of the experimental stimuli (Boeije, ’t Hart & Hox, 2009). The manipulations for the type of store (χ2 (1, N = 105) = 7.80, p = 0.01) and the product category (χ2 (1, N = 105)= 83.31, p <0.001) were both significant. Due to the fact that existing companies were used in this

experiment, it could be that participants already have opinions about these companies. Therefore, participants were asked if they were already familiar with the company they watched in the short video clip and how often they purchase goods from this store.

Next, the measurement of the dependent variables followed. The participants were given a set of propositions regarding customer experience, image and customer innovativeness and could indicate on a five-point Likert scale to what extent they agreed with the proposition. They were also asked to point out on a scale from zero to ten how likely it is that they would recommend the store in the video clip to their

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friends of colleagues, channeling the most important question according to Reichheld and his Net Promoter Score (2003).

In the final phase of the experiment the participants were asked about their familiarity with the Pop-Up store concept and whether they had visited such a store before and if so, how often. At last, they could write down thoughts about the Pop-Up store and indicate for each thought if this was a positive or a negative thought. When

associations are strong, positive and unique in a customer’s mind, Keller (2013) states that this could lead to stronger customer-based brand equity. Keller (1993) defines customer-based brand equity as ‘the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand’ (p.2). Strong brand equity means that customers will buy more or can be considered loyal, that they will recommend the brand to their peers and that they possibly prefer the brand over competitors. The entire experiment can be found in Appendix 2.

3.4 Stimuli

To determine whether there is a difference between the type of store (a Pop-Up store and a traditional store) and the product category (Luxury brand products and regular brand products), there are four conditions in this experiment. Two existing and well-known brands are displayed in the video clip as the stimuli. These brands both have traditional brick- and- mortar stores as well as the occasional Pop-Up store. It is best to use the same brand for both types of store in order to reduce or even avoid any form of bias regarding the brand.

The luxury brand in this experiment is the French brand Guerlain, which belongs to the multinational luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. In 1828 the House of Guerlain was created by chemist and perfumer Pierre- François- Pascal Guerlain and was dedicated entirely to beauty (Guerlain, 2014). Hundred years later, in 1928, the brand expanded globally with success. LVMH sees the brand as one of the top three brands in Paris and states that the brand is still rapidly growing abroad (LVMH, 2013). With the heritage of the company and their worldwide famous products, this brand is a good example of a luxurious brand.

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The regular brand in this experiment is the Swedish multinational retail-clothing company Hennes & Mauritz (H&M). H&M is the second largest global clothing retailer and is listed and 21st_{Best Global Brand 2013 (Interbrand, 2013). In 2012 the} brand had almost 2800 stores worldwide, which still has a yearly increase of ten to fifteen percent (H&M, 2012). With the relatively cheap prices of the clothing items and the enormous brand awareness, H&M is a good example of a regular brand.

Both brands have traditional stores and occasional Up Stores. Guerlain uses Pop-Up retailing to (re-) launch items and to increase awareness of both the products as the brand. H&M uses Up retail for similar reasons, as they frequently have Pop-Up stores when a new clothing collection is launched. The video clips that are used for Guerlain are a video clip of the flagship store, which is located at 68 Avenue de Champs- Élysées in Paris, and the Pop-Up store, which is located right next to the flagship store in Paris. The theme of the Guerlain Pop-Up store is the launch of their new lip colors product line Rouge Automatique. The video clip of H&M’s traditional store is a tour in a new H&M store in Oxford. The Pop-Up store is located at the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam and focuses on the H&M Conscious Collection. The stimuli are shown in Figure 5 and screenshots of the video clips are shown in Appendix 2.

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To rule out external factors that could influence the participants, every video clip was between one and one-and-a-half minute long, they all had the same song playing on the background (the acoustic version of Paradise by Coldplay) and they all had the same introduction (a picture of the brand logo). The randomization was set at even distribution in order to get an even division of participants over the conditions. In Table 2 the amount of participants for every condition is shown.

Table 2

Depiction of the conditions and the amount of participants.

Condition Amount of participants (n)

1. Luxury brand/ Pop-Up store n = 30 2. Luxury brand/ traditional store n = 25 3. Regular brand/ Pop-Up store n = 25 4. Regular brand/ traditional store n = 25

3.5 Item generation

Customer experience, image and customer innovativeness are the dependent variables on which the influence is determined in this experiment. Every variable is measured by a set of propositions on which the participant could indicate to what extent he or she agrees on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from “I completely disagree” to “I completely agree”. An overview of all the variables, dimensions and propositions can be found in Appendix 3. To check whether the scales are valid and reliable, a

Cronbach’s alpha is calculated for every scale. A Cronbach’s alpha higher than 0.60 indicates a reliable scale.

3.5.1 Customer Experience

In order to measure the variable customer experience, a scale has been composed of eight propositions, among which the proposition “This company makes me feel good”. These propositions together form a very reliable scale with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88. The reliability of the scale cannot be improved more than 0.10 by removing an item.

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3.5.2 Image

According to the theory of Chun (2001, as cited in Chun, 2005) image can be divided into multiple dimensions, namely emotional appeal, products & services and

workplace environment. In order to check if the dimensions are composed properly, a principal-component factor analysis is performed. Although, the analysis showed three components with an Eigen value above 1, the components were not composed according to Chun’s theory, but were randomly spread. Therefore, only the overall scale of image is used, instead of the separate dimensions. The scale exists of six propositions regarding emotional appeal, among which “This company evokes a good feeling”, four propositions regarding products & services, among which the

proposition “This company offers high quality products and services” and five propositions regarding work environment, among which the proposition “This company looks like a good company to work for”. The reliability analysis of the overall scale pointed out that the scale can be considered reliable with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89. The reliability of the scale could not be improved with 0.10 by removing an item.

3.5.3 Customer Innovativeness

The variable customer innovativeness is measured using a scale consisting of six propositions, including the proposition “I will buy new products even if I never used it before”. These propositions together form a very reliable scale with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89. The reliability of the scale can be improved by removing the item “I will buy beauty products, even if I never used it before” (α= 0.92). Consequently this item is removed.

Thus, the scales for the dependent variables can be considered reliable as the Cronbach’s alpha’s all exceed 0.60, the minimum required for a scale to be

considered reliable. An overview of the results of the reliability analyses is given in Table 3.

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Table 3

An overview of the reliability analyses; Cronbach’s alpha’s.

Variable Cronbach’s alpha

Customer experience α = 0.88 Image (combined) α = 0.89 Customer innovativeness α = 0.92

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4. Results

In this chapter the results derived from the experiment will be discussed extensively in order to determine the effect of Pop-Up retail on customer experience and image and to establish whether there is a difference in effect between Pop-Up stores and traditional brick- and- mortar stores. First, the univariate analyses will be discussed, then the bivariate analyses and lastly the multivariate analyses.

4.1 Univariate Analyses

The results of this experiment indicate that the customer experience of the participants in this research can be considered positive with a mean of 3.44 (SD= 0.66). They were slightly more positive about the image of the brands in the video clips with a mean of 3.53 (SD= 0.52). However, the customer innovativeness of the participants can be considered average with a mean of 2.77 (SD= 0.90), which indicated that the participants are sometimes innovative and sometimes customary and stick to their habits. An overview of the means, standard deviations and skewness of these variables is given in Table 4.

Table 4

Overview of the means, standard deviations and the skewness of the variables.

Variable M SD Skewness Customer experience 3.44 0.66 -0.54 Image (combined) 3.53 0.52 -0.28 Customer innovativeness 2.77 0.90 0.04

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4.2 Bivariate Analyses

When performing a multiple regression analysis with more that one predictor or independent variable it is important to check for multicollinearity. Multicollinearity exists when there is a strong correlation (a Pearson’s correlation coefficient that exceeds 0.80 or 0.90) between two or more predictors (Field, 2013). If the correlation is too strong, the predictors cannot be used separately in the regression analyses, but have to be put together, otherwise the effect on the dependent variable should be considered arbitrary (Doorn, 2006). In Table 5 the Pearson’s correlation coefficients are shown and indicate that there is no sign of multicollinearity. The highest

correlation is between image and customer experience (r = 0.71), but is still below 0.80.

Table 5

A Correlation with Pearson’s Correlation coefficients and the Cronbach’s alpha.

Customer Experience Image Customer Innovativeness Customer experience 0.88 Image 0.72 0.89 Customer innovativeness 0.34 0.37 0.92

4.3 Multivariate Analyses

In order to answer to determine whether to accept or reject the hypotheses and to answer the research questions multiple analyses have been performed, among which independent sample t-tests, two-way ANOVA’s, general linear models and regression analyses using PROCESS.

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4.3.1. Influence of the type of store on customer experience

H1: The positive influence of a Pop-Up store on customer experience is greater than the positive influence of a traditional brick- and- mortar store on customer experience.

Levene’s F-test for equal variances in an independent sample t-test shows that there is no significant difference in variance (F = 0.08; p ns), thus equal variances are

assumed. There is no significant difference between participants who saw a Pop-Up store and participants who saw the traditional brick- and- mortar stores in their

customer experience, t (103)= 0.24; p ns. The positive influence of a Pop-Up store on customer experience (M= 3.45, SD= 0.67) is not greater than the positive influence of a traditional brick- and- mortar store on customer experience (M=3.42; SD= 0.64). Hypothesis 1 is rejected.

Table 6

Overview of the influence of store type on customer experience.

Variable Condition M SD SE n

Customer experience Pop-Up store 3.45 0.67 0.08 63 Traditional Store 3.42 0.64 0.10 42

4.3.2 Influence of the type of store on Image

H2: The positive influence of a Pop-Up store on the image of a company is greater than the positive influence of a traditional brick- and- mortar store on the image of a company.

In the independent t-test Levene’s F-test for equal variances shows that there is a significant difference in variance (F = 0.53; p ns.), thus equal variances are assumed. There is no significant difference between participants who saw a Pop-Up store and participants who saw the traditional brick- and- mortar stores in their image of the company, t (103)= 1.06; p ns. The positive influence of a Pop-Up store on image (M= 3.57, SD= 0.50) is not greater than the positive influence of a traditional brick- and-

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Table 7

Overview of the influence of store type on image.

Image Pop-Up store 3.57 0.50 0.06 63 Traditional Store 3.46 0.55 0.08 42

4.3.3 Influence of product category on customer experience

H3: The positive influence of luxury products on the customer experience of a company is greater than the positive influence of regular products on the customer experience of a company.

Levene’s F-test for equal variances in an independent t-test shows that there is no significant difference in variance (F = 1.61; p ns), thus equal variances are assumed. There is a significant difference between participants who saw a luxury brand (Guerlain) and participants who saw the regular brand (H&M) in their customer experience, t (103) = 2.55; p = 0.01; 95% CI [0,07; 0,58]. The positive influence of a luxury brand (M= 3.57, SD= 0.70) is greater than the positive influence of a regular brand on customer experience (M=3.25; SD= 0.56). Hypothesis 3 is accepted.

Table 8

Overview of the influence of product category on customer experience.

Customer experience Luxury brand 3.57 0.70 0.09 61

Regular brand 3.25 0.56 0.08 44

4.3.4 Influence of product category on image

H4: The positive influence of luxury products on the image of a company is greater than the positive influence of regular products on the image of a company.

In the independent t-test Levene’s F-test for equal variances shows that there is no significant difference in variance (F = 0.34; p ns), thus equal variances are assumed.

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There is no significant difference between participants who saw a luxury brand (Guerlain) and participants who saw the regular brand (H&M) in their image of the company, t (103) = 1.89; p ns. The positive influence of a luxury brand on image(M= 3.58, SD= 0.54) is not greater than the positive influence of a regular brand on image (M=3.46; SD= 0.50). Hypothesis 4 is rejected.

Table 9

Overview of the influence of product category on image.

Image Luxury brand 3.58 0.54 0.07 61

Regular brand 3.46 0.50 0.08 44

4.3.4 The most influential combination on customer experience RQ1: Which combination of store type (Pop-Up store/ traditional store) and product category (luxury/ regular) will have the most positive influence on the customer experience?

In a two-way ANOVA Levene’s test suggests that the variance in customer

experience is roughly equal across the various combination of store type and product category (F=0.60, p ns). The analysis shows a significant main effect of product category, F (1, 101) = 6.26, p =0,01, η2_{= 0.06. Although the interaction effect of store}

type and product category on customer experience is not significant, F(1,101)= 0.01, p ns, Table 10 shows that the combination Pop-Up store and luxury brand results in the highest score on customer experience (M= 3.59, SD= 0.74).

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Table 10

Overview of the influence of combinations on customer experience.

Variable Condition 1 Condition 2 M SD n

Customer experience

Pop-Up Store Luxury brand 3.59 0.74 35

Pop- Up Store Regular brand 3.27 0.54 28

Traditional store Luxury brand 3.55 0.64 26

Traditional store Regular brand 3.21 0.60 16

4.3.5 The most influential combination on image

RQ2: Which combination of store type (Pop-Up store/ traditional store) and product category (luxury/ regular) will have the most positive influence on the image?

In a two-way ANOVA Levene’s test suggests that the variance in customer

experience is roughly equal across the various combination of store type and product category (F=0.70, p ns). The analysis shows no significant main effects of either store type or product category. Although the interaction effect of store type and product category on image is not significant, F (1,101)= 0.87, p ns, Table 11 shows that the combination Pop-Up store and luxury brand results in the highest score on image (M= 3.59, SD= 0.56).

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Table 11

Overview of the influence of combinations on image.

Variable Condition 1 Condition 2 M SD n

Image Pop-Up Store Luxury brand 3.59 0.56 35

Pop- Up Store Regular brand 3.54 0.44 28

Traditional store Luxury brand 3.56 0.52 26

Traditional store Regular brand 3.31 0.58 16

4.3.6 The moderating role of customer innovativeness on customer experience

The hypotheses with a moderating role of customer innovativeness will all be tested using a regression analysis with the function PROCESS by Andrew F. Hayes.

H5: The influence of store type on customer experience will be higher for customers who are highly innovative, than for customers with a lower degree of innovation.

Customer innovativeness was examined as a moderator of the relation between store type and customer experience. The moderation is shown by a non-significant

interaction effect, b = 0.23, 95% CI [-0.08, 0.53], t = 1.48, p ns. Thus, hypothesis 5 is rejected.

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Table 12

Overview of interaction effect of store type and customer innovativeness on customer experience. b SE B t p Constant 3.43 [3.31, 3.56] 0.06 55.22 p <0.001 Customer Innovativeness 0.24 [0.09, 0.39] 0.08 3.09 p < 0.001 Type of Store -0.05 [-0.29, 0.19] 0.12 -0.39 p = 0.69 Customer Innovativeness x Type of Store 0.23 [-0.08, 0.53] 0.15 1.48 p = 0.14

H6: The influence of product category on customer experience will be higher for customers who are highly innovative, than for customers with a lower degree of innovation.

Customer innovativeness was also examined as a moderator of the relation between product category and customer experience. The moderation is shown by a non- significant interaction effect, b= -0.02, 95% CI [-0.33, 0.30], t= -0.10, p ns. Hypothesis 6 is also rejected.

The PROCESS analysis shows that there is a significant positive relationship between product category and customer experience at the mean value of customer

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Table 13

Overview of interaction effect of product category and customer innovativeness on customer experience. b SE B t p Constant 3.44 [3.31, 3.57] 0.06 53.03 p <0.001 Customer Innovativeness 0.23 [0.06, 0.39] 0.08 2.78 p = 0.01 Product Category -0.25 [-0.51, 0.00] 0.13 -2.00 p = 0.05 Customer Innovativeness x Product category -0.02 [-0.33, 0.30] 0.16 -0.10 p = 0.92

4.3.7 The moderating role of customer innovativeness on image H7: The influence of store type on image will be higher for customers who are highly innovative, than for customers with a lower degree of

innovation.

In order to test the moderating role of customer innovativeness in the relation between store type and image, another regression analysis was performed using the PROCESS function. The moderation is shown by a non-significant interaction effect, b = 0.11, 95% CI [-0.14, 0.37], t = 0.88, p ns. A non-significant interaction effect indicates that hypothesis 7 is rejected.

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Table 14

Overview of interaction effect of store type and customer innovativeness on image.

b SE B t p Constant 3.53 [3.43, 3.62] 0.05 71.48 p <0.001 Customer Innovativeness 0.21 [0.09, 0.34] 0.06 3.37 p <0.001 Type of Store -0.12 [-0.33, 0.08] 0.10 -1.23 p = 0.22 Customer Innovativeness x Type of Store 0.11 [-0.14, 0.37] 0.13 0.88 p = 0.38

H8: The influence of product category on image will be higher for customers who are highly innovative, than for customers with a lower degree of innovation.

Customer innovativeness was also examined as a moderator of the relation between product category and image. The analysis shows a non-significant interaction effect, b = 0.15, 95% CI [-0.10, 0.40], t = 1.20, p ns. Thus, hypothesis 8 is also rejected.

Table 15

Overview of interaction effect of product category and customer innovativeness on image. b SE B t p Constant 3.54 [3.45, 3.63] 0.05 75.27 p <0.001 Customer Innovativeness 0.21 [0.08, 0.33] 0.06 3.25 p < 0.001 Product Category -0.05 [-0.23, 0.13] 0.09 -0.56 p = 0.08 Customer Innovativeness x Product category 0.15 [-0.10, 0.40] 0.13 1.20 p = 0.23

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4.4 Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the ratio of promotors to detractors for a brand. Reichheld (2003) states that with just one simple question, companies can determine whether their customers are loyal and satisfied. That specific question is “ How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” Customers can answer this question on a scale from zero to ten. The promotors are the customers who indicate that they would recommend the company to a friend or colleague with a nine or ten, the customers who recommend the company with a seven or eight on the scale are considered passively satisfied and the rest of the customers who recommend the company with a grade from zero to six are the detractors. The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promotors. Companies with good to excellent customer loyalty have a score above +75%.

However, it is possible to have a negative score, which means that the company has to find ways to increase customer loyalty.

According to Schneider, Berent, Thomas and Krosnick (2008) the NPS is about three connected concepts, namely satisfaction, liking and the propensity to give future recommendations. A satisfied customer’s liking of a company or brand is higher than a dissatisfied customer’s, which leads to more recommendations of the company. Higher liking and higher satisfaction indicate higher retention rates for the company, but is also a good indicator of the word-of-mouth promotion that will occur. The tendency of loyal customers bringing in new customers through word-of-mouth and other recommendations is very beneficial for a company, especially when the industry the company operates in is matured (Reichheld, 2003). Every detractor, and even a passively satisfied customer, is a missed opportunity for a company. ‘The path to sustainable growth begins with creating more promotors and fewer detractors’ (p.10).

In this experiment the participant were asked about their customer satisfaction/ loyalty using the NPS for both Guerlain and H&M.

The calculated NPS for Guerlain in this experiment is -48.3 (Figure 6). This indicates that the participants in this experiment are not particularly satisfied with the company.

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Ten percent of the participants are a promotor of the brand, while 58.3 percent is a detractor.

Figure 6 Net Promoter Score Guerlain.

The NPS of H&M is significantly higher than the NPS of Guerlain. The score of H&M is -13.6 (Figure 7). With 9.1% promotors, 68.2% passively satisfied customers and 22.7% detractors, H&M should also focus more on increasing customer

satisfaction and loyalty. With the use of more Pop-Up stores both brands might be able to increase the customer satisfaction by giving the customers an extraordinary experience. Although satisfaction has no direct influence on customer loyalty,

fostering favorable attitude and getting customers to recommend the product or brand is key to stimulate and grow loyalty (Sivadas & Baker-Prewitt, 2000).

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Figure 7 Net Promoter Score H&M.

4.5 Exploratory analysis: Associative Network

Understanding the needs and wants of the consumers and providing them with products and services to satisfy them are the heart of successful marketing (Keller, 2013). In order to build a strong and successful brand it is crucial to ensure that customers have the right type of experiences with the company’s products and

services and that the thoughts, feelings and attitudes become linked to the brand. This concept is called customer brand equity and can be defined as ‘the differential effect that brand knowledge has o consumer response to the marketing of that brand’

(Keller, 2013, p. 69). When consumers evaluate the products and services as positive, the brand has positive customer-based brand equity and when they evaluate the products and services negatively there is negative customer-based brand equity. In creating brand equity, brand knowledge is key. The associative network memory model is a way for marketers to understand what goes on in the mind of the consumers and how the brands are viewed (brand knowledge). ‘The associative network memory model is a network of nodes and connecting links, in which nodes represent stored information or concepts, and links represent the strength of

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Customer-based brand equity occurs when a consumer holds strong, favorable and unique associations in memory about the brand and has a high level of brand

awareness, the likelihood with which a brand comes to mind. Brand awareness can be created by repeated exposure of the brand or special consumer experiences, such as a Pop-Up store. In this experiment participants were asked to write down every thought they had about Pop-Up stores and to indicate whether this thought was positive or negative. In the word cloud (Figure 8) all the thoughts of the participants about Pop-Up stores are shown. The bigger the word, the more often participants had this particular thought.

Figure 8 Word cloud of participants’ thoughts of Pop-Up stores. The word cloud shows that participants consider Pop-Up stores to be a new fun, special and interesting experience, while they notice the temporary character of the store. In general, the participants are positive about the Pop-Up store (hip, new, unique, exclusive, innovative) and only some of the thoughts were negative

(expensive, unclear, perishable). Pop-Up stores can be a good way for companies to build or strengthen brand awareness and eventually help build customer-based brand equity.

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5. Conclusion & Discussion

In this chapter the research question of this thesis will be answered and there will be a critical reflection of the experiment. Furthermore, pointers and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

5.1 Conclusion

With the results of the experiment, the research question of this thesis can be answered.

“How does Pop- Up retailing influence Customer Experience and Image and how does this differ from traditional stores?”

Both a Pop-Up store and a traditional brick- and- mortar store have a positive influence on the customer experience, but there is no significant different in their influence. Thus, a Pop-Up store, a form of experiential marketing, does not have a greater influence than a traditional brick- and- mortar store. This is also the case for the influence on the image of a company. The multi-sensory experience that a Pop-Up store provides does not necessarily have a greater influence of the image of a

company than the simple sensory experience of a traditional brick- and- mortar store.

The influence of the product category, luxury products versus regular products, is also determined in the experiment and the analysis show that both luxury and regular products have a positive influence on customer experience, but that the influence of luxury products is greater. This finding corresponds with the research by Vickers and Renand (2003) that states luxury products satisfy functional and experiential needs of consumers. On the other hand, this significant difference is not present when it comes to the image of a company. Both luxury and regular products have a positive

influence on image, but the influence of a Pop-Up store is not greater, what goes against expectations.

In compliance with the expectations, the combination Pop-Up store and luxury products have the most positive influence on both customer experience and image.

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are satisfied. From a luxury product people expect a high quality service and an incredible customer experience and a Pop-Up store is a good way to fulfill that expectation. A Pop-Up store for a luxury brand has the most positive influence on the image of a company, because a Pop-Up store can create the extravagant illusion for the brand. The positive associations of this experience will be transferred onto the image that the consumer has of the company.

Customer innovativeness was conceptualized as the willingness to buy new and different products and that highly innovative customers take more risk and are more important for companies as they function as word-of mouth representatives for the brand (Jordaan & Simpson, 2006). Therefore it was expected that customer

innovativeness had a moderating role in the influence of store type and product category on both customer experience and the image of a company. However, the analyses show that there is no moderation effect. The influence of store type on customer experience or image is not higher for highly innovative customer than for customers with a lower degree of innovation. Also, the influence of product category on both customer experience and image is not higher for highly innovative customers than for customers with a lower degree of innovation.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) for both brands in the experiment, Guerlain and H&M, were negative. The NPS of H&M was relatively higher than the NPS of Guerlain, which is due to the fact that H&M is better known among the entire population as H&M targets the mainstream audience, younger and older males and females, while the target group of Guerlain is the slightly older women, who has more dollars to spend as the products are somewhat pricey. Nevertheless, the scores of both brands were negative and this means that both brands should find ways to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Although Pop-Up retail has a positive influence on both customer experience and the image of a company, it can be concluded that against all expectations Pop-Up retail does not have more influence on customer experience and the image of a company than that a traditional brick- and- mortar store has.

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5.2 Discussion

In this study an experiment was performed to determine the effect of Pop-Up retail on customer experience and image and whether there is a difference in effect between Pop-Up stores and traditional brick- and- mortar store. Additionally, customer innovativeness was analyzed in order to establish whether this psychographic

characteristic has an influence on the relationships between the type of store and type of product category (luxury or regular brand) and customer experience and image.

Although the aim of this study was to determine the effects of the experiential marketing strategy Pop-Up retail, this was only done for one specific sector, namely Fashion/ Beauty, comparable to the research of Surchi (2010), which only covered the fashion sector. The result of this experiment, therefore, cannot be generalized to different sectors. For further research on this subject, it is recommended to include multiple sectors, such as the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector. This way the effects can be completely ascribed to Pop-Up retail and/or it can be researched on which sectors the effects of Pop-Up retailing are stronger than on others.

The target groups for products and services can be gender-specific, age-specific or focused on different aspects and characteristics. In this experiment the brands H&M and Guerlain are used. Although H&M also sells male clothing, it is brand that mostly focuses on women. Guerlain sells make-up products and perfume, which also

characterized the brand as a female focused brand. It may be that the male

participants thus were less engaged in this experiment than the female participants as the males were no really in their comfort zone. For future research it can be

recommended to include multiple products (both male and female focused brands) or just to exclude males when female brands are used in the experiment or vice versa.

In this experiment there is also an uneven distribution of age and educational level. It was mentioned before that the results perhaps could not be generalized as the mean educational level in this experiment is much higher than in the real population. The age of the participants is also not generalizable as most participants are in the age between 16 and 35. This might be due to the non-randomized sampling (convenience sampling and snowball sampling). For future research it is recommended to use

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probability sampling, as you get a much more realistic view and are able to generalize to the entire population.

As mentioned before, sometimes brands put up Pop-Up stores in the same street as their (flagship) traditional stores. It would be interesting to further investigate whether this also has an effect on customer experience and image. The example Guerlain used in this study also has a Pop-Up store next to it flagship, but the effect of a Pop-Up next to a traditional store was not addressed in this study. Another item that was not addressed in this study is the fact that some products are really country specific. In some countries products are hyped, used a lot and ‘are trending’ much earlier than in other countries and sometimes they are simply country specific. This study only focused on the Netherlands, thus for further investigations it can be advised to include multiple countries to see if the effects of Pop-Up retail are similar for different

countries.

The stimuli for this experiment consisted out of four short clips. Two clips were about the luxury brand Guerlain (one Pop-Up store and one traditional store) and two clips about H&M (also one Pop-Up store and one traditional store). In order to prevent bias, the clips all had approximately the same duration and the same background music. What might have been of influence is that the Guerlain brand has a traditional store that is very similar to the Pop-Up store, with all kinds of extraordinary

decorations, meant to enhance the customer experience. For future research the

experiment should contain multiple brands, with different types of stores to make sure that the design of one particular store does not influence the rating of the customer experience.

Although Chun (2001, as cited in Chun, 2005) presents image as a concept, which can be divided into multiple dimensions (of which three were relevant for this experiment, namely emotional appeal, products & services and workplace environment), this division was unapparent in this experiment. The principal- component factor analysis was performed and there were three components with an Eigen value greater than one. However, the items that matched each dimension were scattered all over the three components. This could be an effect of unclear propositions for the participants or that there were not enough participants to really distinguish between the different

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components. For future research it can be recommended to include more participants in the experiment.

It is important to note that, while the results in this experiment were mostly

insignificant, the general linear analysis showed the best combination of store type and product category for influencing customer experience and image of a company. With these results, companies could derive which type of marketing to use when they want to promote their brand and built brand equity. Pop-Up retail is a great form of experiential marketing, which can especially be used by luxury brands in the Fashion/ beauty industry, when they want to promote their brands. Future research could focus on making clear distinctions which type of experiential marketing or other ways of promotions can be used for different product categories, maybe even for different industries.