An Interesting Kiosk Experience...

Eric,

Here in the United States, this unit is marketed as "The Octomasse", the ultimate head massager.

It comes in 4 colors, red, orange, blue & purple.

If you need a couple dozen, be sure and let me know! :)

Pete Egeler

> Hi guys,

> I'm a frequent lurker of this forum. I've
> enjoyed
> the many business ideas and sales stories
> others
> have shared here. I just had an interesting
> experience at my local mall and thought
> other
> visitors to this forum would find my
> experience
> interesting as well. I'm not much of a
> writer, so
> I apologize in advance for poor syntax or
> grammatical errors.

> I was walking through the mall yesterday,
> browsing the display windows of the
> "brand name"
> shops, not paying much attention to the many
> kiosk vendors who had their stands set up
> throughout the center isle of the main mall
> area,
> when I heard a woman's voice say
> "Excuse me,
> Sir". As she spoke to me, she literally
> pulled me
> by my coat sleeve and lead me over to her
> kiosk.
> As I turned to look at her, without saying
> another word to me, she ripped of the
> baseball
> cap I was wearing, and stuck a foreign
> object on
> my head.

> Normally, I would not have been too happy to
> have
> someone violate my personal space like that,
> but
> as soon as I got a good look at this woman,
> I had
> no problem with what she was doing to me.
> She was
> very pretty, about 20 years old, olive skin,
> long
> flowing brown hair, brown eyes and spoke in
> what
> I believe was a french accent. If some
> burly-
> looking man had attempted to do the same
> thing to
> me, I probably would have slugged him.

> Anyway, this lovely young woman placed the
> foreign object on my head before I ever had
> a
> chance to see what it was. She immediately
> began
> rubbing the object around on my scalp.
> Within
> seconds, I received this very unique
> tingling
> feeling throughout my entire head. It really
> felt
> quite pleasant. In fact, it may have been
> the
> most stimulating feeling I ever felt. No
> kidding!

> As the young women continued to roll the
> object
> around on my head, she asked me how it felt.
> I
> told hear honestly that it felt great. My
> statement put a big smile on her face and
> she
> began to tell me all the benefits of the
> product
> (relieves stress and headaches, great
> inexpensive
> Christmas gift, etc, etc), as well as the
> many
> different ways you can use it.

> Her demonstration lasted approximately 45
> seconds. When she was finished, she told me
> the
> name of the product, which was something
> like "The Octafessuer" (if anyone
> knows the
> correct name of this product, please let me
> know), and she told me the price. It was $25
> for
> the first one, and only $15 more for a
> second
> one (it was a good incentive to buy at least
> two). She then asked me (very sternly),
> "what
> color do you want, and how many do you
> want.".
> She did not ask me if I would like to buy
> one.
> She asked me "how many....".

> Now I want to tell you, this product really
> sells
> itself. I was impressed by how it worked
> from the
> demonstration. I was interested in
> purchasing two
> of them. Plus, the fact that a pretty young
> lady
> was staring me in the face while she
> confidently
> asking how many I wanted, I just did not
> want to
> say "no thank you" to her.

> Unfortunately for me, she was running a
> cash-only
> business, and I only had credit cards on me.
> When
> I told her I only had credit cards, I don't
> think
> she believed me, because she said if I buy
> from
> her right now, she will take 10% off the
> purchase
> price. When she said that, I was ready to
> tell
> her to give me five minutes while I run to
> an ATM
> machine. But, I did not tell that to her. I
> just
> thanked her for the demonstration and walked
> way.
> I may return this weekend with the cash :)

> NOW THE MOST INTERESTING PART.....
> Being a quasi-businessman myself, I was very
> interested in knowing how well this lovely
> young
> kiosk vendor was doing with her operation.
> When I
> walked away, I bought some coffee and
> returned to
> a bench near her kiosk so I could observe
> how
> much actual business she was doing.

> For the next 15 minutes, I paid special
> attention
> to how much product she sold. In that 15
> minute
> time frame, I saw her demonstrate the
> product on
> 12 people (4 of which were couples she
> demonstrate on at once). She sold a whopping
> 10
> units to 7 of the 12 people (3 of the
> customers
> bought 2 units each), and I don't know how
> many
> of the customers bought at the 10% discount
> she was offering to those who were hesitant
> to
> buy. I'll let you do the math on how much
> cash
> she is potentially making per hour, per day,
> etc.

> BACK TO THE PRODUCT: As I mentioned above, I
> don't remember the name of the product,
> other
> than "The Octa... something or
> other". If
> somebody knows what I'm talking about,
> please
> reply to this post or drop me an email to
> let me
> know the name of the product. Or, let me
> know if
> you found the web address for it. I searched
> the
> Net for it, but only found a similar product
> called "The Tingler". "The
> Octa something or
> other" looks similar to the "The
> Tingler",
> but "The Octa..." looks more
> complex, which I
> think gives "The Oct..." greater
> perceived value.

> As I said before, this product really does
> sell
> itself. But the key was the demonstration,
> and
> how it was demonstrated. If I just walked
> past
> the kiosk, and saw someone else being
> demonstrated on, I would not have been
> interested
> in the product. It would have just looked
> like
> another gimmick, because the product itself
> does
> not look like much of anything. But, the
> fact
> that this pretty young women pulled me to
> the
> side and placed this thing on my head
> (without
> warning), I had no choice but to realize the
> true
> appeal of the product.

> Anyway, if someone is looking for a great
> product
> to sell face-to-face for the holidays, you
> may
> want to look into this one.

> Well that's my story. I hope some of you
> found it
> useful, or informative.

> Thanks for letting me share,

> - Eric Snyder




eMarketer's "Secret Weapon"