A tangible demonstration of the power of storytelling: The significant objects experiment
The Significant Objects experiment is a tangible demonstration of the power of storytelling in sales and marketing.
Journalist Rob Walker purchased low value objects, for on average $1.25 and had great creative writers invent stories about them. He then posted the articles on e-Bay to see if the invented story enhanced the value of the object based on what price it achieves on auction.
It did.
An old pepper shaker was bought for 99 cents, and sold for $28.00. A butterfly embossed cigarette case was bought for 10 cents, and sold for $33.77. A horse bust was bought for 99c and sold for $62.95
All in all, 100 pieces were cost $128.74, and were sold for $3612.51 - a whopping 2780% increase in value.
That's story power.
This apple was bought for $1.00, and sold for $102.50 with a story.