"The project auctioned off thrift-store objects via eBay; for item descriptions, short stories by over 200 contributing writers were substituted. The objects, purchased for $1.25 apiece on average, sold for nearly $8,000.00 in total." – Significant Objects
(image via Golf Digest)
In today’s high tech world, the shift has gone from needing engineering talent to design, build and prototype to needing the soft skills of defining niches, establishing partners, and convincing people to join you.
How do you do that? You tell stories.
The telling of stories is what makes a boring legal theory brief into semi-interesting content that problem solvers look for. It takes a decorated t-shirt that sells for $9 in one store and sells it for $139 in another. Tell a story.
Significant Objects is a literary and anthropological experiment devised by Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn. It demonstrates the effect of narrative on a given object’s subjective value can be measured objectively.
It works. I saw a speaker illustrate this with a golf club.
“I picked this up at a garage sale” conveyed a particular value for the club.
“It used to belong to a professional golfer” conveyed a greater value.
“It was the club Jack Nicklaus used to hit his epic approach shot on the 17th a Merion to win the World Amateur Team Championship. The shot that began his legendary ascent into golf history” indicated the club is priceless.
What story is your business telling? What analogy best explains the problem your products solve? Figuring this out will improve new customer acquisition.
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