And Myrorna got loads of press from a willing bunch of journalists. The concept was a perfect match of fresh ideas mixed with the ‘good-will’-feel from the fact that all profits go to the Salvation Army. All fashion shows have been packed. One of them was carried out in the church of Maria Magdalena in southern Stockhlom, a beautiful setting for second-hand Haute Couture. Also in stores Myrorna noticed results of new thinking with somewhere around a 73%-rise in sales of clothes. Unfortunately Myrorna refuses to reveal anything about their next fashion show.

“We have to keep our ideas a secret or else our next marketing idea won’t be something unexpected,” Martin Gustavsson explains, which is a vital part of our whole marketing strategy.

“Because of our modest budget for marketing we’ve been forced to think in new ways,” Lars Beijer says. “For instance we employed a new fashion manager and educated our staff so they became more skillful in sorting these trendier garments out, and to value them correctly.”

In the beginning of the Salvation Army’s history in 1865 they used another “provocative” and youthful way of marketing the church’s activites. Under the slogan “Why should only the devil play the best music?” they quite simply ‘stole’ melodies from the most popular musichall-songs and songs being sung in pubs and put their own religious lyrics to the music.

“I don’t know if there’s any parallels between our history of borrowing popular melodies and they way we market our clothes today,” Lars Beijer continues. But both actions have in common that they’re designed to draw attention to the church in a cost-effective and interesting way. And they both worked!”