By Jill Manoff
For many brands, the pop-up concept serves as a valuable growth lever. And taking a more hands-on approach can have its perks.
In January 2022, beauty industry veteran Lynn Power launched the Conscious Beauty Collective, with a focus on bringing indie beauty and wellness brands together for co-funded and -operated pop-ups for 3-4 months at a time. Brookfield malls, in San Francisco and Boston, have hosted both iterations thus far.
“I don’t want to stay somewhere too long; we want to go and get awareness, new customers, new influencer [partners] and new media in every market — just go somewhere and make a splash." - Lynn Power
“I had this idea and [interested] brands, and Brookfield had space, so it’s been a great fit,” Power said. “I don’t want to stay somewhere too long; we want to go and get awareness, new customers, new influencer [partners] and new media in every market — just go somewhere and make a splash. And Brookfield has over 300 malls in premium locations in the U.S.”
Conscious Beauty Collective’s San Francisco store, at Stonestown Galleria, was formerly an Aveda storefront. However, the latter and current store, at Boston’s Natick Mall, required more “beautifying” to match the featured products’ premium price points. Power said It was worth the extra effort, considering its location across from a Louis Vuitton store and a Nordstrom.
That multiple brands across beauty categories are featured in Conscious Beauty Collective stores encourages discovery, Power said. Meanwhile, the store facilitates education around clean beauty, which is “not yet mainstream.” In addition to serving customers in-store, associates distribute informative postcards and product samples to mall passersby. Also to promote the store, the Collective leverages geo-targeted Facebook and Google ads and direct mailers, all targeting people within a 15-mile radius of the mall.
“These are brands you can’t yet get at Sephora or Ulta or Credo, because we’re small,” she said. “But it’s the chicken or the egg: We want to be at these retailers to grow our brands, but they want our brands to grow them." - Lynn Power
Power called the pop-up a “survival tactic” for her own beauty brand — a hair-care brand dubbed Masami — as well as the companies of her collaborator brand founders. “These are brands you can’t yet get at Sephora or Ulta or Credo, because we’re small,” she said. “But it’s the chicken or the egg: We want to be at these retailers to grow our brands, but they want our brands to grow them. [The hope is that] this will allow us to reach the ‘sweet spot’ size that retailers are looking for, while preparing us for the demands that a big retail partnership entails.”
"[The hope is that] this will allow us to reach the ‘sweet spot’ size that retailers are looking for, while preparing us for the demands that a big retail partnership entails.” - Lynn Power
She added, “Brookfield would love for us to stay [long-term], but they know the deal and they’re supportive.”
This article was originally published on Glossy+ and an excerpt is reproduced here. It's part of The Great Mall Overhaul, a joint Modern Retail and Glossy editorial series looking into all the ways the businesses underpinning malls have been upended. For the full article in Glossy+, click here.
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