Fashion Friday: I Fell For It

• June 29, 2012

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I will never stop nerding out over marketing. I guess that’s why I majored in it…why I work in the Sales Department at my employer…and why I love blogging! I get so beyond excited to see marketing in action, even if it’s a situation in which I become one of its “victims”. You are probably wondering…isn’t this Fashion Friday? Shouldn’t you wait and write this post on Monday so you can call it Marketing Monday? I know Meg is thinking that right now (she’s my fellow alliteration enthusiast).

Well if there’s one thing that fascinates me most about fashion (aside from the pieces themselves), it’s the marketing aspect of it. Allow me to give you a perfect example, in which I “fall prey” to the clever email marketers over at Urban Outfitters.

Firstly, all orders over $50 get free shipping. Secondly, they are having a bangin’ sale on shoes. Those three s’s (shipping (free), sale, and shoes), along with boredom, combined to create the perfect storm for online shopping. I filled my virtual cart with enough pairs of shoes (four to be exact) to get the free shipping (and then some). Actually, I picked out six pairs at first, but narrowed it down to four with Jeff‘s help via FB chat (sorry to rat you out there, Jeff).

I swear this post has a less-than-completely-shallow point! I ended up abandoning my cart of shoes, something that happens all to often for online retailers. The purchase wasn’t completely off the table in my mind, but was definitely in “wait and see how I’ll feel tomorrow” status. I did not check out.

Then this afternoon, I got a nice email from Urban Outfitters with this goodie inside:

IT WAS FATE! Or so I thought. I couldn’t believe it – here I was, on the fence about purchasing some lovely cheap foods, and along comes a coupon. I quickly logged onto my account, added the below adorable straw clutch to my cart (oops), and checked out using the promo code. $110 gone…but it could’ve been $122!

An hour or two later, while telling my co-worker about my fateful coupon purchase, I stopped in my tracks. DUH DUH DUH. And I call myself a marketing major?! Urban Outfitters saw me add those shoes to my cart. They saw me decide not to purchase them the day I added them. So what did they do? They sent me, specifically, a nudge. Who was I to think everyone on their mailing list got that coupon? It was no coincidence. It was NOT fate. No, it was just smart email marketing.

So I fell for it, just like every other schmuck out there. I often tend to think of myself as superior-minded in terms of being aware of advertising efforts. In fact, I can be downright cynical. But yesterday, Urban Outfitters got me to purchase the items I shared images of in this post. And all I can do is sit back, be in awe of the fact that I am an example of “the girl who fell for it”, and give them props for successfully utilizing tried-and-true marketing best practices.

At least my feet will look good while I’m doing so.

EDIT: After drafting this post I stopped into Francesca’s after work since I had time to kill before meeting up with my parents for a glass of vino. And what did I find? A sale. And what did I do? Purchased three more pairs of shoes. And jewelry. And another purse. Um..you only live once?

Have you ever “fallen prey to” a marketing tactic?

What was the last thing you bought online?

What is the largest number of pairs of shoes you bought in one day? Yesterday’s seven is a (sad) record for me.