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Payless Shoes Case Study
- 1. From Last year’sstyles to Now Jennifer Valentine Payless Shoe Source Repositions Itself as Fashion Focused
- 2. From Last Year’sStyles to Now Consumer’s Liked Value pricingSelf-shoppingConsumer’s Wanted“on-trend fashions”
- 3. What Now?Payless Spokespersonon the Red Carpet at the 77th Annual Academy AwardsWearing “Scarlet”
- 4. Public Relations StrategyReposition itself as the “Merchandise Authority” & “Value”Balance of external Media, like T.V, Product placement in news and fashion pressIdentify Fashion Influencers
- 5. Fashion InfluencersWho: Editors,Celebrities, Talk shows like Oprah, Good Morning America What: “this group is extremely influential in helping women decide what to wear and where to buy each season”
- 6. Now what?Get gatekeeper’s attention and buy in “Shoe Bible”-Look booksMoved “shoe closet” to New YorkPayless Showroom-held twice a year
- 7. Theory and conceptof InfluencersOpinion Leaders- is held in high esteem by those that accept his or her opinion on a specific subject. Informal Opinion Leader-role models who are admired and emulatedInnovators-Individuals who are venturesome and eager to try new ideas
- 8. Cause-related MarketingA Companysponsors a nonprofit organization with a fundraising event. Benefit: Media Coverage helps create awareness about the company and the cause, which could lead to more sales.
- 9. Payless & CauseRelated MarketingPartnered with Susan Koman Breast Cancer FoundationMade broochesSent Letters from Star Jones Samples to Female News anchorsCelebrities worn brooches Result: Significant News Coverage Payless sold 90% of it’s brooches
- 10. Final ThoughtDid theresearch Identified their primary audienceHow to reach that audience with the Influencers Cause related marketing Saw results!!
Editor's Notes
- #3 A name like “Payless” attracts price conscience frugal consumer looking for a good bargain. Payless conducted some research to see how how their consumers liked the products and services they received at payless. The survey revealed some important facts. Consumers like the value-pricing and self shopping, two of the brand’s foundational mainstays. But also revealed that consumer wanted more from Payless- On-trend fashions.
- #4 Ladies and Gents we know the world of fashion moves fast and just as we are “in style” with the new trend the media is already showing us the newest trend and we become out of fashion before the new stuff even hits the stores. This is because fashion is driven by the runway, the red carpet and the celebrities. So to operate in this highly competitive environment Payless needed to anticipate where the accessory trends are headed and how to stay on to top of the game. Initial marketing efforts included ads and hiring trendsetters like the “Diva of Shoes” Star Jones from The View and Ana Maria Canseco a Latin morning show hosts as brand spokespeople.
- #5 PR was needed to augment the advertising efforts and leverage the equity created by Jones and Conseco. Payless created a new strategy that centered on “fashion influencers” to share the news of the new payless, its focus on fashion and its on-trend products. The company developed a three part strategy to compete in the high demand game of on trend fashion. First reposition itself as a Merchandise authority while keeping its value, better balance between external media like TV and product placement and fashion press, and the most important task, indentify the fashion influencers.
- #6 The fashion influencers has several important categories fashion media, high profile fashion events (new York fashion week, etc) celebrities and their stylist and the designer community. This group influences women’s decision on what to wear and where to buy each season. It includes fashions and women’s general interest magazines, newspapers, TV fashion programming, daytime talk shows and fashion focused networks like Styles network.
- #7 After indentifying these fashion influencers the next challenge was getting the attention of these media gate keepers but payless was not yet considered on-trend. So Payless made face-to-face appointments with these editors and they quickly saw how Payless was changing. At these desk side meeting editors were given “shoe Bibles” a look book featuring photo of upcoming products and if the editor was interested could call in with the product # and order shoes for their fashion shoots. It also relocated it’s “closet to New York to meet the demands of its new growth. As the doors began to open Payless came up with a better way to showcase the Payless product collections “the Payless Showroom” events are held twice a year for fashions editor and influencers. This event is now a must attend fashion event to be in the “know” for shoes.
- #8 Opinion Leaders- opinion “flows” through leaders to the public through mass media Informal Opinion Leader-role models who are admired and emulatedInnovators-Individuals who are venturesome and eager to try new ideas
- #9 In which Payless sponsors a nonprofit organization with a fundraising event.
- #10 PayLess is a philanthropic organization and supported the United Way for years. the company’s primary audience is females 18 to 44 years old. So in 2004 Payless teamed with Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to raise money to fight breast cancer. To do this Payless created a brooch with a trendy shoe charm that could be purchased for $2 and all the profit from the sales of the brooch were donated to the Komen Foundation. A significant PR effort was organized to create awareness including a letter personally signed by Star Jones Reynolds and samples of the brooch were sent nationwide to female news anchors who wore them and publicized the Payless brooch program on air. News releases were issued, celebrities also wore the brooch and Payless received signicfant news coverage for their efforts. Generating $570,00 in proceeds for the Komen Foundation.
- #11 Did the research Identified their primary audienceHow to reach that audience with the Influencers Cause related marketing Saw results!!