Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The magic of great copywriting
Recently a broken washing machine sold on Trade Me for NZ$5,160!
It started with a NZ$1 reserve but due to some original & creative thinking, the seller was able to add value to the machine. It even has its own website now - www.scarywashingmachine.com
I'm impressed how a piece of writing can add so much value, but I guess it's like so much of what we buy... a CD is only a piece of plastic, worth about $0.10, but we pay $30 because of the creative skill.
Congratulations Mike - Kiwi ingenuity is alive & making lots of money!
The auction had over 800,000 hits and a huge number of comments.
This is what Mike Whittaker (the seller) wrote:
Old mid 80's Fisher and Paykel top loader.
Goes like a rocket!
By 'goes like a rocket' I actually mean that literally.
It actually shakes the house.
It's the loudest most violent sounding washing machine I have ever encountered.
It makes guests scared and children cry. I've lived with it like that for almost a year and it still scares me.
Once while washing a load of towells it got a bit out of balance and it got so out of control for a minute that I swear I actually saw a porthole to another dimension open above it just for a second, there were dinosaurs on the otherside and they looked scared too, it almost sucked me in but I held onto for my life to the deepfreeze. It sucked my shoes and pants off though and it got the iron as well which pissed me off because it was quite a good one. Luckily it sucked it's own power cord out of the wall and stopped before the whole house went in.
I drew a picture of the dinosaurs i saw incase people didn't believe me, they are partly red because my green felt ran out half way through.
I think it would be good to paint it matt black and put steel spikes all over it and draw demons on the front, however I have added an image of another possible customization option for people who like horses.
On heavy duty spin cycle it sort of sounds a bit like the tortured howls of 1000 undead writhing in the sulphury pits of hell mixed with a train with carriages full of scrap iron sliding down the road with no wheels, on fire, into a bell factory.
Thankfully it's bite is not as bad as it's bark. It washes fine, completes cycles, does everything it's supposed to.
It leaks a bit when it's running, always has.
Its a bit grubby, could do with a wipe down, I refuse to touch it because I'm still getting over the whole dinosaur scare thing.
If your in a fix and need a cheap washing machine and are either completely deaf or hate your neighbours this baby is for you.
Goes like a rocket!
By 'goes like a rocket' I actually mean that literally.
It actually shakes the house.
It's the loudest most violent sounding washing machine I have ever encountered.
It makes guests scared and children cry. I've lived with it like that for almost a year and it still scares me.
Once while washing a load of towells it got a bit out of balance and it got so out of control for a minute that I swear I actually saw a porthole to another dimension open above it just for a second, there were dinosaurs on the otherside and they looked scared too, it almost sucked me in but I held onto for my life to the deepfreeze. It sucked my shoes and pants off though and it got the iron as well which pissed me off because it was quite a good one. Luckily it sucked it's own power cord out of the wall and stopped before the whole house went in.
I drew a picture of the dinosaurs i saw incase people didn't believe me, they are partly red because my green felt ran out half way through.
I think it would be good to paint it matt black and put steel spikes all over it and draw demons on the front, however I have added an image of another possible customization option for people who like horses.
On heavy duty spin cycle it sort of sounds a bit like the tortured howls of 1000 undead writhing in the sulphury pits of hell mixed with a train with carriages full of scrap iron sliding down the road with no wheels, on fire, into a bell factory.
Thankfully it's bite is not as bad as it's bark. It washes fine, completes cycles, does everything it's supposed to.
It leaks a bit when it's running, always has.
Its a bit grubby, could do with a wipe down, I refuse to touch it because I'm still getting over the whole dinosaur scare thing.
If your in a fix and need a cheap washing machine and are either completely deaf or hate your neighbours this baby is for you.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Ideas map
I recently heard a leader in the marketing game talk about a map they had on their wall, where they pinned all the locations that the staff came up with great ideas for their clients.
They had 100's of pins in the map - but only 13 were in the office.
Some might think that they should spend more time in the office! But seriously we all know some of our best ideas occur when we are not trying to come up with them.
Whether it's:
- in the shower
- going for a run
- waking in the middle of the night to jot down some notes
- over a great meal & a bottle of plonk
- in the car
To allow the creative juices flow we need to get out & explore!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
It's not about stress
I hear people talking about "stress" as if it's a problem. I'm not an expert but I believe it's actually our level of resilience to certain events that can cause problems when we are less resilient.
Selye's general adaptation syndrome helps explain how our resilience can cope for a period & the better our resilience, the longer our resistance. (The 3 stages are Alarm , Resistance & Exhaustion) - You can read more about the model at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(medicine)
Things that erode my resilience:
- Pain
- Tiredness
- Illness
- Loss
Things that build my resilience:
- Sleep
- Goals
- Enjoyable activities
- Movies
- Music
- Being with people I like
- Constructive feedback
- Learning
- Spirituality
- Physical activity
I'm going to continue to focus on building and maintaining my resilience.
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