How Payless Changed the Conversation
And how changing the conversation, helped increase the value their brand.
Taking over a former Armani store in Santa Monica, a new high-end shoe company, held a private launch party this past Thursday night with key influencers and high-end early adopters to celebrate Italian designer Bruno Palessi.
As the Washington Post reported, “A mini-runway, lined with stiletto heels, glistens in bright fluorescent lighting. Shoes of various types sit neatly in individual glass shelves. A statue of an angel arriving surrounded by several shopping bags stands in the middle as Los Angeles fashionistas mill about, trying on shoes, posing on the red carpet and drinking champagne in tall, slender glasses.”
“I would pay $400, $500. People are going to be like, Where did you get those? Those are amazing”, a woman said as she tried on a pair of bright-gold sneakers with leopard prints.
But there were no actual Bruno Palessi shoes on hand, and this was no high-end Palessi shoe store. To the surprise of many, the entire event was a PR stunt put on by Payless ShoeSource.
Their plan was to stock the private launch of their pop-up with $20 shoes and $40 boots, proving a long-believed point that consumers will pay more when they believe that the merchandise has a higher value.
We talk about Changing the Conversation at RUSSO, and that’s exactly what Payless did. By convincing fashionistas to pay more for their shoes, their PR stunt invited the public to see them and the merchandise they sell differently.
Mission Accomplished!
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