Significant Objects: Giving Value to Ordinary Objects
To create a successful authentic lifestyle brand, the main objective we look for as marketers is an emotional connection with the audience. Toting product benefits alone is not enough — there must be a bigger idea, or an artistic expression, to create that ultimate brand loyalty. Much of this is done through storytelling, whether visual or verbal, as people connect to brands if there is an accompanying narrative.
So, when we came across the Significant Objects project recently, we were immediately fascinated by this experiment that ultimately proved that ordinary objects had more value when accompanied by a compelling story.
Significant Objects is a literary and anthropological experiment devised by Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn. Their project auctioned off thrift-store objects via eBay for item descriptions made up of short stories written by over 200 contributing writers. In doing this, it showed that the effect of narrative on any given object’s subjective value could be measured objectively.
The objects were purchased for around $1.25 each and had a total profit of $8,000. All of the proceeds were distributed to contributors and nonprofit creative writing organizations.
Now, if only ROI on our work could be measured this accurately!