DSW’s new campaign is beating its ROAS and AOV benchmarks. The retailer’s VP of marketing shares how DSW is attracting new customers while keeping fans buying.

Designer Shoe Warehouse, commonly known as DSW, has a new marketing target: The Self Stylist.

The footwear chain with roughly 500 U.S. stores has overhauled its merchandising assortment and has a new marketing campaign to attract this consumer who skews younger than DSW’s typical customer, said Kelly Ballou, Vice President of Marketing at DSW.

More than 90% of DSW’s sales are from one of the 25 million consumers in its VIP loyalty program. The brand’s current loyal shoppers are ages 50 and up, with 82% of them older than 35. Plus, 57% of the retailer’s loyalty program members have shopped with DSW for more than five years. These loyal shoppers tend to have higher household incomes and they shop in stores frequently, she said.

With such a robust loyalty program and shopper base, DSW has extensively marketed to this customer to drive repeat purchases.

“Because they have high household incomes, they do spend a lot of money with us,” Ballou said. “So there’s really great CLV there attached to that customer.”

Going For Gen Z

DSW still wants this shopper, but it has a large opportunity to attract a new, younger shopper.

“DSW has been on a bit of a journey to reinvent ourselves,” Ballou said. “It started with our merch assortment, which previous to two years ago, was really aimed at getting at that older suburban woman with high household income. And don’t get me wrong, we want her. We still want her to shop our stores, but we had really tailored our assortment and our experience entirely to her. Then COVID happened and things changed in consumer behavior. And we lost focus on the new customer acquisition part and the need to, yes, keep her, but also get a little bit younger.”

DSW’s merchandising team has done the work of overhauling its assortment to cater to younger shoppers, such as a broadened fashion sneaker assortment and more fashion footwear, she said. Now, DSW is testing new creative and broadening its channel distribution to cut through to reach new customers, while keeping the attention and affection of its loyal shoppers, Ballou said.

Let DSW Surprise You

The brand is doing this with emotive story telling. After a year’s worth of work with digital marketing agency Crispin, DSW launched its new brand strategy “Let Us Surprise You” in September. The fall campaign brought to life the new brand platform and guidelines, Ballou said.

“We had this really rich insight from the brand work that we had done that when a consumer is in our store and they discover a shoe that maybe they’re not expecting to find or it isn’t exactly what they came looking for, but they have this moment of discovery with this shoe, it can really be this emotional moment for them where maybe they’re surprised by what they find,” Ballou said.

Now, DSW is launching its next iteration with a spring campaign. The spot is meant to be playful and optimistic, that weaves in the Let Us Surprise you theme with making a DSW store look like a dollhouse.

“A lot of our spots will open and close with a view of our store or a customer walking out with shopping bags,” Ballou said. “Naturally, we’re always looking for creative ways to recreate that feel without it necessarily being a one-for-one of the facade of an exterior of one of our stores.”

In each of the dollhouse windows is a different look for a spring context, such as wedding guest or vacation, that the spot zooms in on.

“The campaign was really meant to tie that all together for the consumer and say to them, ‘You can own the moment and shoes can help,” Ballou said.

DSW’s Spring Campaign is Exceeding Results

The eight-week campaign launched March 1 and it is exceeding its goals, Ballou said. Sales attributed to the campaign are generating an average order value that is a few dollars higher than typical, and the return on ad spend is $3-$4 above its benchmarks for CTV and social, she said. DSW worked with creative agency Spacejunk to help edit its CTV spot.

Importantly, the campaign is acquiring new customers and reaching both its target audience and reaching new.

“I’m happy to say through all of our ad testing that we do, whether that’s our CTV testing with System1 or any of the qual work that we do, any of the shop-alongs we do, we have vetted that the spring campaign does those things both really well:  keeps our current consumer engaged and helps us to attract new,” she said.

While younger shoppers today have gravitated toward fashion sneakers — which is why DSW has broaden its assortment there — Gen Z shoppers are also branching into other types of footwear, such as kitten heels, Ballou said.

“Because our stores encourage that kind of self-discovery, like wander our aisles, see what surprises you, I think that’s where they’ll intersect that kitten heel or they’ll intersect a Western boot that they weren’t expecting or they’re going to find a suede loafer that they didn’t know that they needed or a new pair of ballet flats.”

The Channel to Capture Gen Z

DSW worked for campaign consistency across all channels including CTV,  email, direct mail, in-store and online. It also introduced two new media tactics including a 20-page catalog and out of home ads in six cities with some of its best stores, Ballou said.

“Out of home does have the ability to deliver eyeballs on your brand and drive store traffic,” Ballou said. “For us as a business, if we can get you in our store, chances are really good that we can convert you. We just want to get more new customers into our store.”

While mail and billboards sound like “old” marketing tactics, these channels speak to millennial and Gen Z consumers who are looking for more in-life experiences, she said.

“It’s tactile. It’s something I can touch and see, and if it’s good enough, I might set it aside and look at it again. So that’s repeat eyeballs on it,” Ballou said about its catalog. “We also think that direct mail can be a really great way to drive you in store.”

CTV also is an important channel for customer acquisition, because it can zero in on its younger target audience to convert them, she said.

Internal Creative Team Vs. Agency

DSW’s internal creative team developed the bulk of this campaign. The team consists of nearly 20 employees, including copywriters, graphic designers, two producers, a video expert and photographer.  The strength of this setup is bringing ideas to life faster, consistency and “internal bench strength,” while the drawbacks are overhead costs, Ballou said.

“Having that kind of robust internal agency just really allows us to be nimble, which I love,” she said. “It is such a gift to be able to have an idea on a Tuesday and have the content be ready to go live by a Thursday or a Friday as a result of that nimbleness.”

The most popular strategy between internal team and agency shifts over the years, she said. Right now, in footwear and retail, a more robust internal creative team is becoming more common, shifting away from the agency route, Ballou said.

DSW Plans To Revamp Its Loyalty Program

Next on the marketing team’s list is relaunching its loyalty program. Already the program is an effective tool for the brand.

DSW recently surveyed shoppers about one (undisclosed) brand in its store and why shoppers would buy that brand from DSW vsersus another retailer. The survey revealed that 60% of those customers said it was because of DSW’s loyalty program.

“With this revamp, we’re poised to deliver an even more compelling differentiated experience that drives long-term engagement in growth,” CEO Douglas Howe told investors on DSW’s most recent earnings call according to a SeekingAlpha transcript.