We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrea Cohen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrea below.
Andrea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
We are known for our functional neoprene bags, originated as a project my best friend Alexandra Winkler and I started in Venezuela back in 2016. Since then, our brand has flourished, and we’ve now set up our new base in Miami.
We wanted to translate our personalities and our bond into a project that represented who we are and went on to design a product that fit our needs. Obsessed with finding the perfect pouch and the most durable bag, we decided to create our own bags and make them available to all the other ladies that, like us, were looking for products like these. We designed a line of accessories that are meant for the practical woman: they are stylish, modern, and versatile, all in one. We focused on neoprene since it is machine washable, lightweight, durable and can come in a wide range of colors. For over four years, we have had the blessing of being able to work together as best friends, coming up with new prints and color combinations, discovering new ideas for our line and creating products that fit in perfectly with every type of woman we have come across!
Our most recent collaboration with Construyendo Futuros was a project we had been thinking for a while, we wanted to find a way to give back to the Venezuelan Community. The heart of the project lies in showcasing the artistic expressions of children from underprivileged communities. Prompted with the question, “Draw something that makes you happy”, these drawings have been thoughtfully imprinted onto PopUps handbags. Every bag and pouch purchased from this collection ensures 100% of the proceeds go to Construyendo Futuros, directly supporting the education of Venezuelan children.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Word of mouth definitely! Due to our success in Venezuela we already had a big community on Instagram and loyal followers. Once we opened the market in the US I think having a solid instagram following and organic user content really helped us start with a good reputation here in the US. One of our strategies was also to encourage our followers to leave us review for a discount on their next purchase. These reviews helped us understand what people were liking, what could be done to improve and continue building our reputation within the market. Overall we continued to improve our product and our customers were really happy with the product!
When we arrived to Miami we also did a lot of Bazaars and events! This allowed us for people to see the products in real life and also know our clients personally. In these Bazaars people would buy them as gifts, and show their friends so this also helped with our brand reputation in the market. When we started our biggest base was here in South Florida, but we went to market shows in Atlanta, did a popup in LA, so people could see the brand in person! I think that once people see the brand in person it also helps with brand reputation to see the product and see the people behind the brand.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Yes! So actually when we started Pop Ups Brand in Venezuela we didn’t start with neoprene tote bags! We started with a selection of many products from belts, to bags, to accessories! After seeing how much people loved the neoprene tote bags and how useful and functional they were we decided to switch our strategy instead of having many style of products we decided to focus on just neoprene bags!
We focused first on the totebag and then started creating more bags but focusing on the neoprene material that got us our initial success in Venezuela!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://popupsbrand.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=pop-ups