Payless has become a name synonymous with cheap and highly affordable footwear. Given its extremely pocket friendly prices and offers such the ‘Buy 1, Get 1’, the brand has become a far-fetched cry from anything that we perceive as a luxury. However, in busting the myth that its shoes are incomparable to a certain Prada or Gucci, Payless recently pranked customers into buying its offerings for a much higher price.
In initiating the skit, the brand first zeroed in on a store (a former Armani abode) and gave it a classic French name – ‘Palessi’. It then stocked up the place with regular footwear, only this time by tagging them for a pseudo price of $500 onwards. To make the deal believable, the brand created an Instagram profile and a website and also invited a bunch of social media influencers for the so-called inaugural event. It then went on to interview customers in the name feedback by asking them just how much they think the shoes are worthy of.
Once the deluded clients gave in their answers, (with some also agreeing to pay between $400- $1800 for a regular Payless pair), the brand finally stepped in to reveal the big prank. Doug Cameron, chief creative officer of the DCX Growth Accelerator, the agency with which Payless partnered for the stunt called the gig a ‘Social Experiment’ by further stating, “Payless customers share a pragmatist point of view, and we thought it would be provocative to use this ideology to challenge today’s image-conscious fashion influencer culture.” Yup, point well-made Payless!
[Via:NDTV]
