How To Sell A $1 Snow Globe For $59: The Real ROI Of Brand Storytelling | Fast Company

The founders of the website Significantobjects.com, a site devoted to quantifying the bottom-line power of story at a product level, say, “Stories are such a powerful driver…that their effect on any given [product’s] subjective value can be measured objectively.” The website is home to an experiment that goes like this: the founders buy thrift store, garage sale, and flea market products, always cheap, no more than a couple dollars at most. Then, they hire a writer to compose a fictional story about the product, imbuing it with heritage, history, and ostensibly, value. The once-valueless products, accompanied by their new stories, are then sold auction-style on eBay. The difference between the original purchase price and story price is recorded as the objective value of that story.

The takeaway results for the first 100 products bought, storied, and then resold on eBay are poignant and telling. On average, the original product price was $1.29. But the average resale price after a story was added grew to a staggering $36.12. All in all, the experiment shows that even at a micro level, story can increase product value by a whopping 2,706 percent (or more, in the case of this snow globe).

thingsmagazine: London Buses, a collection by Kate Farley, presented at Obsessionistas, a website about collections Obsessionistas is a cool site. Have a collection (of whatever)? Submit stuff here. 

thingsmagazine:

London Buses, a collection by Kate Farley, presented at Obsessionistas, a website about collections

Obsessionistas is a cool site. Have a collection (of whatever)? Submit stuff here. 

washingtonpoststyle: People have been lining up outside The Washington Post to buy today’s print edition. Because you can’t make a keepsake out of a Web site.

washingtonpoststyle:

People have been lining up outside The Washington Post to buy today’s print edition.

Because you can’t make a keepsake out of a Web site.

Confession: I have a crush on Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Confession: I have a crush on Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

twitter.com

sandykatrina: Calvin was living Uptown before Katrina.  He was evacuated to seven different cities starting with San Antonio, TX.  But, he managed to get back.  After he did he opened his own barber shop.  When asked what he would say to New Yorkers, he paused for a minute before he said it’s not about the material things…

sandykatrina:

Calvin was living Uptown before Katrina.  He was evacuated to seven different cities starting with San Antonio, TX.  But, he managed to get back.  After he did he opened his own barber shop.  When asked what he would say to New Yorkers, he paused for a minute before he said it’s not about the material things…

unconsumption: Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead! Pictured: “Dead Media,” an installation that repurposes 497 VHS tapes. Created by friend of Unconsumption Noah Scalin (mentioned previously several times here), of the Skull-A-Day project. (photo via SkullADay here) See also: Other videotape-related repurposing examples in earlier posts here.

unconsumption:

Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead!

Pictured: “Dead Media,” an installation that repurposes 497 VHS tapes. Created by friend of Unconsumption Noah Scalin (mentioned previously several times here), of the Skull-A-Day project. (photo via SkullADay here)

See also: Other videotape-related repurposing examples in earlier posts here.

distractedbypixels:

Lydia Calas, Mayor Bloomberg’s sign interpreter. I could watch her for hours. ♥

distractedbypixels

buzzfeedandrew: A parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as a result of Hurricane Sandy in Hoboken. (AP) Yikes. Just yikes. [Another AP cab shot and other AP photos (and story) here.]

buzzfeedandrew:

A parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as a result of Hurricane Sandy in Hoboken. (AP)

Yikes. Just yikes.

[Another AP cab shot and other AP photos (and story) here.]

buzzfeedandrew

lettersfromhere: The 10 best fictional architects | Culture | The Observer I’d add the lead character from Peter Greenaway’s 1980s film “The Belly of an Architect.”

lettersfromhere:

The 10 best fictional architects | Culture | The Observer

I’d add the lead character from Peter Greenaway’s 1980s film “The Belly of an Architect.”

Abandoned, in Mexia, Texas. (Taken with Instagram)

Abandoned, in Mexia, Texas. (Taken with Instagram)

Today: Cans filled with Campbell’s tomato soup. Next month: After the soup’s consumed, the empty cans, with colorful labels still on them, will be repurposed as … art supply holders! [If you haven’t heard about these specially designed labels, here’s a little info: Campbell Soup Co., in a promotion with Target stores and The Andy Warhol Foundation, packaged a batch of tomato soup in cans covered with limited-edition Andy Warhol-inspired Pop-art labels. The cans were made available this past weekend at Target store. (I read that some stores sold out hours after the cans went on sale.) The project commemorates the 50th anniversary of Warhol’s famed Campbell’s soup can work. A portion of revenue from the project will benefit the Warhol Foundation.] Now I have to admit that I don’t typically shop at Target, but I needed cat litter, and I’d read about the can promo; together, they gave me a reason to visit a nearby Target store! #Popartisforeveryone (Taken with Instagram at Super Target)

Today: Cans filled with Campbell’s tomato soup.

Next month: After the soup’s consumed, the empty cans, with colorful labels still on them, will be repurposed as … art supply holders!

[If you haven’t heard about these specially designed labels, here’s a little info: Campbell Soup Co., in a promotion with Target stores and The Andy Warhol Foundation, packaged a batch of tomato soup in cans covered with limited-edition Andy Warhol-inspired Pop-art labels. The cans were made available this past weekend at Target store. (I read that some stores sold out hours after the cans went on sale.) The project commemorates the 50th anniversary of Warhol’s famed Campbell’s soup can work. A portion of revenue from the project will benefit the Warhol Foundation.] Now I have to admit that I don’t typically shop at Target, but I needed cat litter, and I’d read about the can promo; together, they gave me a reason to visit a nearby Target store! #Popartisforeveryone

(Taken with Instagram at Super Target)

A good use for empty wine bottles. (Taken with Instagram at HCAF Point Theater)

A good use for empty wine bottles. (Taken with Instagram at HCAF Point Theater)

Further north on Broadway Street: San Antonio’s Pig Stand restaurant, one of only a handful left in the chain. (Some 130 restaurants opened in the 1920s-30s.) From the Web site: “In the initial years the Pig Stand pioneered several food items: Texas toast, deep-fried onion rings, and the country-fried steak sandwich. Not only was the Pig Stand the first restaurant to offer curb and drive-through service, it also was among the first to use fluorescent lighting, neon signs, and air conditioning.” The current owner of this location, Mary Ann Hill, started as a waitress here at age 18 in 1967. #backstory (Taken with Instagram at Pig Stand)

Further north on Broadway Street: San Antonio’s Pig Stand restaurant, one of only a handful left in the chain. (Some 130 restaurants opened in the 1920s-30s.) From the Web site: “In the initial years the Pig Stand pioneered several food items: Texas toast, deep-fried onion rings, and the country-fried steak sandwich. Not only was the Pig Stand the first restaurant to offer curb and drive-through service, it also was among the first to use fluorescent lighting, neon signs, and air conditioning.” The current owner of this location, Mary Ann Hill, started as a waitress here at age 18 in 1967. #backstory (Taken with Instagram at Pig Stand)

Ghost signs — Texas edition. (Taken with and posted from Instagram)

Ghost signs — Texas edition.

(Taken with and posted from Instagram)