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Payless dupes fashion influencers into paying hundreds for $20 shoes in cheeky ad campaign

TU Curmudgeon

TU Curmudgeon

B.A. (Sarc), LLb. (Lex Sarcasus), PhD (Sarc.)
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From ABC News

Payless dupes fashion influencers into paying hundreds for $20 shoes in cheeky ad campaign
​

A handful of fashion influencers paid hundreds of dollars for shoes from the budget retailer Payless after the company rebranded as the high-end "Palessi" for a day in a dramatic ad campaign.

The campaign, created by the advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator, shows how Payless took over a boutique in Los Angeles and created the fake luxury brand "Palessi."

COMMENT:-

What in hell does this have to do with politics?

Think "election campaigning".

PS - Those customers can't even get their money back because what they paid was the advertised price. Do I feel sorry for someone who paid $450 for a pair of $20 sneakers? It is to laugh.
​
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Payless dupes fashion influencers into paying hundreds for $20 shoes in cheeky ad campaign
​

A handful of fashion influencers paid hundreds of dollars for shoes from the budget retailer Payless after the company rebranded as the high-end "Palessi" for a day in a dramatic ad campaign.

The campaign, created by the advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator, shows how Payless took over a boutique in Los Angeles and created the fake luxury brand "Palessi."

COMMENT:-

What in hell does this have to do with politics?

Think "election campaigning".

PS - Those customers can't even get their money back because what they paid was the advertised price. Do I feel sorry for someone who paid $450 for a pair of $20 sneakers? It is to laugh.
​
Click to expand...

A nice example of why trust is dying.

It was murdered.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Payless dupes fashion influencers into paying hundreds for $20 shoes in cheeky ad campaign
​

A handful of fashion influencers paid hundreds of dollars for shoes from the budget retailer Payless after the company rebranded as the high-end "Palessi" for a day in a dramatic ad campaign.

The campaign, created by the advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator, shows how Payless took over a boutique in Los Angeles and created the fake luxury brand "Palessi."

COMMENT:-

What in hell does this have to do with politics?

Think "election campaigning".

PS - Those customers can't even get their money back because what they paid was the advertised price. Do I feel sorry for someone who paid $450 for a pair of $20 sneakers? It is to laugh.
​
Click to expand...

I go to Kohls.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
A nice example of why trust is dying.

It was murdered.
Click to expand...

It is more an example of the power of branding, and people's stupidity when it comes to "status symbols"

The shoes were the same, with just a different label on it. That label made the shoes worth $450 to some people because they could go to their friends and say they paid $450 for those shoes. It is for so many not about the quality of the product or service, but just the image that owning or using it can project to their friends or followers
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
It is more an example of the power of branding, and people's stupidity when it comes to "status symbols"

The shoes were the same, with just a different label on it. That label made the shoes worth $450 to some people because they could go to their friends and say they paid $450 for those shoes. It is for so many not about the quality of the product or service, but just the image that owning or using it can project to their friends or followers
Click to expand...

It is also about corporations being willing to extract money by any means possible and about so-called experts not being able to tell their ass from a hole in the ground. As almost everyone knows from their intimate relationships once trust is gone it is very hard to get back, we in this society should take great care to not murder trust...and yet all too often we do the opposite.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Payless dupes fashion influencers into paying hundreds for $20 shoes in cheeky ad campaign
​

A handful of fashion influencers paid hundreds of dollars for shoes from the budget retailer Payless after the company rebranded as the high-end "Palessi" for a day in a dramatic ad campaign.

The campaign, created by the advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator, shows how Payless took over a boutique in Los Angeles and created the fake luxury brand "Palessi."

COMMENT:-

What in hell does this have to do with politics?

Think "election campaigning".

PS - Those customers can't even get their money back because what they paid was the advertised price. Do I feel sorry for someone who paid $450 for a pair of $20 sneakers? It is to laugh.
​
Click to expand...

A powerful illustration of how suggestible we are as a social species.

I think they did give them their money back, btw.
 
Fashion can be quite vapid.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News


​
A handful of fashion influencers paid hundreds of dollars for shoes from the budget retailer Payless after the company rebranded as the high-end "Palessi" for a day in a dramatic ad campaign.

The campaign, created by the advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator, shows how Payless took over a boutique in Los Angeles and created the fake luxury brand "Palessi."

COMMENT:-
What in hell does this have to do with politics?

Think "election campaigning".

PS - Those customers can't even get their money back because what they paid was the advertised price. Do I feel sorry for someone who paid $450 for a pair of $20 sneakers? It is to laugh.
Click to expand...

Red:
Classing rebranding strategy....
  • Key success factors:
    • Imperfection of information and unsophisticated target customer
    • Emotion, not need, drives (in party or wholly) the buying decision (elasticity of demand)
    • Good "gloss"
    • "Aspirationally achievable" pricing strategy
It's long been known (and applied) that one way to boost profits and sales is to change nothing but the price, increasing it.


It's not clear to me why anyone's surprised the strategy worked for Payless.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Payless dupes fashion influencers into paying hundreds for $20 shoes in cheeky ad campaign
​

A handful of fashion influencers paid hundreds of dollars for shoes from the budget retailer Payless after the company rebranded as the high-end "Palessi" for a day in a dramatic ad campaign.

The campaign, created by the advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator, shows how Payless took over a boutique in Los Angeles and created the fake luxury brand "Palessi."

COMMENT:-

What in hell does this have to do with politics?

Think "election campaigning".

PS - Those customers can't even get their money back because what they paid was the advertised price. Do I feel sorry for someone who paid $450 for a pair of $20 sneakers? It is to laugh.
​
Click to expand...

Ingenious.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Payless dupes fashion influencers into paying hundreds for $20 shoes in cheeky ad campaign
​

A handful of fashion influencers paid hundreds of dollars for shoes from the budget retailer Payless after the company rebranded as the high-end "Palessi" for a day in a dramatic ad campaign.

The campaign, created by the advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator, shows how Payless took over a boutique in Los Angeles and created the fake luxury brand "Palessi."

COMMENT:-

What in hell does this have to do with politics?

Think "election campaigning".

PS - Those customers can't even get their money back because what they paid was the advertised price. Do I feel sorry for someone who paid $450 for a pair of $20 sneakers? It is to laugh.
​
Click to expand...

But...But... the conservatives said there was no way they could be influenced by anti-Hillary and other racist memes!!! This isn't possible.
 
TU Curmudgeon said:
From ABC News

Payless dupes fashion influencers into paying hundreds for $20 shoes in cheeky ad campaign
​

A handful of fashion influencers paid hundreds of dollars for shoes from the budget retailer Payless after the company rebranded as the high-end "Palessi" for a day in a dramatic ad campaign.

The campaign, created by the advertising agency DCX Growth Accelerator, shows how Payless took over a boutique in Los Angeles and created the fake luxury brand "Palessi."

COMMENT:-

What in hell does this have to do with politics?

Think "election campaigning".

PS - Those customers can't even get their money back because what they paid was the advertised price. Do I feel sorry for someone who paid $450 for a pair of $20 sneakers? It is to laugh.
​
Click to expand...

The power of marketing.

But Payless has the best marketing campaign here. They have shown how their shoes are as good as those brand named shoes. They are going to make a pile of money.
 
Mycroft said:
The power of marketing.

But Payless has the best marketing campaign here. They have shown how their shoes are as good as those brand named shoes. They are going to make a pile of money.
Click to expand...

We'll see, practicing dishonesty tends to not go well for brands in the long run, as with any relationship. We also must keep in mind too that this is a recently bankrupt company with a now longish history of making major mistakes, faith in their abilities should be scarce.
 
Last edited:
Lord Tammerlain said:
It is more an example of the power of branding, and people's stupidity when it comes to "status symbols"
Click to expand...

Yup.

Most Apple users have never utilized the high-end features on a Mac Pro, or an expensive top of the line iPhone, and wouldn't begin to know how. So in the end they're mostly paying for the cool factor.

I regularly have to inform Mac users that Final Cut X is only fifty-nine bucks...they've spent years putting together their YouTube cat videos with iMovie, which is a clumsy blunt little tool that is relatively worthless.

Even funnier is when they complain about having to SPEND 59 bucks, after they just dropped two to three thousand on a high end high performance desktop or laptop.

No matter, my ASUS workstation looks boring as hell, maybe even has a little bit of dust on it.
But it can eat a Mac Pro for lunch...for a fraction of the price.

workstation2.jpg

And I never have to worry about running out of battery power on my plain old Android phone, I just swap in another battery.
 
BTW this company being dishonest is not new.....before and around the bankruptcy (4/2017) they clearly set out to **** over the Chinese factories that make their shoes....it was a THING.
 
So now you don't like capitalism ?
 
NeverTrumpGOP said:
But...But... the conservatives said there was no way they could be influenced by anti-Hillary and other racist memes!!! This isn't possible.
Click to expand...

This happened in LA. It would be the Hillary loving left that feel for this. Proving agian how easy it is to fool a democrat
 
Chillfolks said:
This happened in LA. It would be the Hillary loving left that feel for this. Proving agian how easy it is to fool a democrat
Click to expand...

considering that every Trump Sycophant on this forum still supports him to some degree, I do not think it is the Democrats that are easily fooled.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
A nice example of why trust is dying.

It was murdered.
Click to expand...

It's an even better example of how mindless some consumers are - isn't it?

I mean, would you pay $450 for a pair of "designer" sneakers if you had never heard of the "designer"?

If you would, I have some "Lardache" jeans that are still in their original wrappings that I can let you have at a VERY good price. (I get to define "good".)
 
Hawkeye10 said:
It is also about corporations being willing to extract money by any means possible and about so-called experts not being able to tell their ass from a hole in the ground. As almost everyone knows from their intimate relationships once trust is gone it is very hard to get back, we in this society should take great care to not murder trust...and yet all too often we do the opposite.
Click to expand...

Do you think that "Payless" actually lost a single customer over this stunt?

Do you think that this stunt got "Payless" more free advertising than it cost to set it up?

Something that doesn't cost you any customers but which brings in (making the numbers up) $1,000 of free advertising for every $10.00 spent is considered to be "brilliant marketing".

I really don't think that "Payless" is in the least bit concerned about how many people in the "I pay $400+ for a pair of sneakers" group it loses as customers (mainly because it likely doesn't have very many in that group to lose [and anyone who is in that group and who IS a "Payless" customer is likely to have a really good sense of humour).
 
lwf said:
A powerful illustration of how suggestible we are as a social species.

I think they did give them their money back, btw.
Click to expand...

Which would only elevate the level of "Great Publicity" that the stunt produced.

PS - It wouldn't surprise me in the least if one or two of the people who bought those "Paylessi" shoes are going to hang on to them and later sell them for a really nice profit. I'd be tempted to - wouldn't you?
 
Mycroft said:
The power of marketing.

But Payless has the best marketing campaign here. They have shown how their shoes are as good as those brand named shoes. They are going to make a pile of money.
Click to expand...

Actually the stunt "proved" exactly nothing about the QUALITY of the shoes.

What the stunt DID prove was "People will buy anything if you market it correctly." (I don't suppose that you remember "Chia Pets" and "Pet Rocks".)

But, nice try though.
 
Anyone that pays $450 for a pair of tenny-shoes got ****ed, anyway. No matter what the production cost per unit is.

Obviously a case of "more money than sense".
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
It is more an example of the power of branding, and people's stupidity when it comes to "status symbols"

The shoes were the same, with just a different label on it. That label made the shoes worth $450 to some people because they could go to their friends and say they paid $450 for those shoes. It is for so many not about the quality of the product or service, but just the image that owning or using it can project to their friends or followers
Click to expand...

Primative behaviors.

Status in social species confers better access to resources and the member of any species with the best access to resources is the most likely to reproduce.

That's where status and what we call "greed" boils down to.

Obeying instinctive drives for status.
 
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