101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Get Crazy Handout

Challenge:How might we get people to buy more of our product? First, get crazy and gen-

erate some ridiculous ideas such as the following:

• Threaten people with a “long vacation” if they don’t buy your products.


• Pay them $1 million for every dollar they spend on your products.


• Promise them three magic wishes.


• Attach a subliminal advertising device to their televisions.


• Have your cousin Vinnie pay them a visit.


• Send your product to every home in the world as a holiday gift and invoice the home-
  owners.

O.K., those are pretty ridiculous. Now use each one to stimulate a more practical idea.

Some examples:

• Offer free or partially funded vacations to people who place large orders.


• Develop a list of “magic wishes” with a lottery for customers to select one of the wish-
  es; for instance, one wish might be to win one dollar every day for ten years.


• Offer discounts to people who pay with cash.


• Offer family discounts.


• Create a new product with a holiday theme.

54 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &

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