Pima growers use retail as promotional venue
NEW YORK – In its 54-year history, Supima, the Phoenix-headquartered marketing and promotion company representing U.S. pima cotton growers, has enjoyed award-winning ad campaigns, any number of prestigious co-sponsorships, and even–beginning last year–PREFAB, its own textile trade show here at Gotham Hall.
But, as of Friday, March 14, it’s been in the international news for another way to take its brand message about superior strength and softness directly to consumers: The Supima pop-up store that opened here at 72 Greene Street in SoHo.
“We’re only going to keep this open one month,” Supima president Jesse Curlee says about the chic, gallery-like shop, which will close promptly at 7 p.m. on April 13. “We wanted to spotlight some of the fantastic products being made with Supima.”
“The store is a great way to grow awareness of Supima which benefits both our licensed brands and retailers” Buxton Midyette, Supima’s New York-based vice president of marketing, explains about the here-today, gone-tomorrow approach to selling, which retail analysts view as an exercise in marketing and promotion as much as moneymaking.
However, only a few weeks after its opening, the Supima store venture has already paid off handsomely with press coverage and increased name recognition for Supima cotton.
Before its opening, news about the pop-up store–considered a first from a fiber company–had already appeared in Italy’s top two fashion Web sites. The store’s opening party, on Thursday evening, March 13, was attended by reporters from The Financial Times, Reuters, Newsday, and a long list of glossies that included Elle, Esquire, In Style, Interior Design, Maxim, Modern Bride, People, and Time Style & Design. Plus an assortment of red carpet celebs and much-photographed socialites.
Already that has translated into Web site and print placements from New York and Elle, innumerable fashion blogs, and major trades like DNR, MR, and Home Textiles Today.
How It Started: Setting a date, finding a site
Supima’s results were all the more remarkable given its timetable: The store venture wasn’t even announced until after PREFAB, the Supima textile trade show, wrapped up its latest edition on January 24.
Fortunately, Eric Dorfman of EdMedia, who initially proposed the venture and who co-produced the store, had already done successful pop-ups for brands ranging from Crown Royal to Cuervo Gold.
Targeting SoHo, an accessible area of Manhattan with both high tourist traffic and high credibility as a fashion venue, the search for a site began. Supima began assembling the eventual 15 total brands and making its fashion buys without even a confirmed venue.
Finally, toward the end of February, the perfect site was signed: 72 Greene Street, a landmark building that is the centerpiece of the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District, part of the National Register of Historic Places. The race to ready the space in time for a March 14 opening was on.
In the Works: Print and Web promotions
But that turned out to be only the beginning: Next came a spate of print, electronic, and in-person promotions timed to the store’s opening.
By the end of February, daily teasers, promoting the 15 designers and brands who would be featured in the store, began appearing on the Supima’s blog: www.SupimaCotton.Blogspot.com
Then came a new Web site, www.supimastore.com. Designed by Giacomo Cavalleri, the site was created with graphics, copy, and music that would appeal to the trend-conscious target consumer for the Supima store’s fashion-forward mix of brands. The site’s dual purpose: to create buzz before the opening and act as an information site for store location and hours once the venture was up and running.
While all of that was going on, Supima also produced a full-fledged fashion magalog. Photographed by Andrew Yee, the photography purposely echoed the aesthetics of the still-being-built store site. Midyette says: “Our direction to the photographer was only two words long: We told him ‘spring’ and ‘soft’.”
Going to press only days before the store’s scheduled March 14 opening, 5,000 copies of the magalog were printed. Of those, 1,000 were sent to top editors, designers, and retailers. Another stack was saved to hand out at the store, so shoppers would come away with a beautiful souvenir of their Supima experience.
The rest were destined for a less traditional means of distribution.“We found five newspaper boxes and placed them at key locations around SoHo,” says Midyette, “for instance, the corner of Crosby and Spring Streets.” The idea: Enticing shoppers, tourists, and the heavy foot traffic in that end of SoHo into the store nearby.
By the official opening, the Supima name was everywhere.
Planting cotton in Manhattan
But Supima had another surprise up its sleeve: Making a field of cotton magically appear in Manhattan–and turning what had been a parking lot into one of the city’s most-photographed tourist attractions.
“People couldn’t believe their eyes,” Midyette recalls. “Tourists posed in front of it. Commuters were leaning out of their cars. Cellphone cameras came out. Jaws dropped. It was one of those magical New York moments . . . people were doing doubletakes.”
Minutes after the 10 p.m. finish of Thursday night’s opening party, three of Supima’s top brass–chairman Jeff Elder, president Jesse Curlee, and Midyette–left the event and headed straight to the nearby empty lot, where they worked until 4 a.m. shoveling dirt and transforming the erstwhile vacant lot. By 4 a.m., they’d successfully replanted 1,000 cotton plants–an entire field’s worth that had been saved for just this occasion and trucked into town the day before.
Passersby were also treated to bonus bouquets of cotton, from a couple who–starting promptly at 8:30 a.m.–began assembling bouquets of cotton branches while working out of the same kind of vendor’s cart that New Yorkers usually associate with hot pretzels and hot dogs. Anyone who asked got a bouquet of beautiful, fluffy cotton wrapped in cellophane, complete with an oversized Supima hangtag directing them to the Supima pop-up store nearby.
For a sample of media coverage and more about the brands featured, go to: www.supimacotton.blogspot.com