The shallowness of the consumer will never cease to astound me. Add a bit of tinsel and a French/Italian sounding name, and they’ll fall over themselves to spend more.

Such is the case with Payless, a discount footwear brand in the US, offering shoes as low as $19 a pair.

Payless put together a stunt of epic proportions, adjusting their brand name to ‘Palessi’ and opening a brief luxury store in Los Angeles. They filled the store with the exact same budget shoes they normally sell, and marked the prices up through the roof – some up to 1 800%.

The result? Oh, you know it.

Wow, that cat at the 10-second mark is quite something.

The best bit is that Palessi invited around 80 influencers over the two nights, one of whom spent $640 for a $35 pair of boots, with many of them sharing pictures across social media talking up the luxury brand’s offerings for the small fee they were paid to attend.

As per CNN:

Payless said the social experiment was meant to remind shoppers that Payless’ affordable shoes are fashionable too.

“The campaign plays off of the enormous discrepancy and aims to remind consumers we are still a relevant place to shop for affordable fashion,” Payless CMO Sarah Couch told Adweek.

A study published in 2008 tested the idea that price affects perceptions of quality. Subjects were given inexpensive wine to drink, but those who were told it was more expensive described it as more flavorful and pleasant to drink.

Don’t get me started on the price of wines. I keep an empty bottle of Chateau Lafite next to my decanter at my bar at home. I fill the decanter up with Wolftrap Red, and people freak when they drink it.

Every time.

Not that it’s been all rosy for Payless:

Payless has been struggling against online competitors such as Amazon-owned Zappos and buzzy startups like Allbirds. It filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and reemerged from it four months later after shuttering nearly 700 stores.

Yes, indeed.

The Melissa’s curse…

[source:cnn]