Mystery Crap - an Unconventional Announcement of an Unconventional Website and Product.The owners of “Mystery Crap”, a Southern California based retail company are proud to announce the launch of their brand new website MysteryCrap.com where you can purchase – you guessed it – a big box of “Mystery Crap”.
By: PR Plans After trying to work this out in my head and checking out the website and seeing their slogan: “think inside the box”, I decided that I would do a little interview with the owner of the company, Sarah Bird and simply relay the interview as the press release. Here is our phone conversation - verbatim: Me: Ms. Bird, why don’t you start by telling me a little bit about your business. Ms. Bird: Sure, no problem but first why don’t you stop calling me Ms. Bird. It sounds so stupid. You can call me Catalina. Me: Oh I’m sorry, I thought your name was Sarah. Is it Catalina? Ms. Bird: No. It’s Sarah - Catalina is just a better name. Me: (LOL) Okay. Well, Catalina why don’t you start by telling me a little bit about your business. Catalina: Okay Chuck, Mystery Crap is... Me: Chuck? Catalina: I know and my name isn’t Catalina. Me: ?????? Catalina: Hello? Chuck: I’m here, sorry. I guess that I am a little bit confused about why you are calling me Chuck but we’ll go on. Why don’t you tell me about your business, Catalina. Catalina: Okey Dokey Chucky. It’s a pretty simple concept. I buy a bunch of really cool crap from wholesale companies and then I randomly throw it into boxes, seal them up, slap a logo sticker on them and sell them for twenty nine bucks. People love them! Chucky: Wow, that pretty much sums it up doesn’t it? Catalina: Hey, you asked. Chucky: Okay well let me ask you a few specific questions then. Catalina: Alrighty, Chuck. Chuck: How did your business start and what gave you the idea? Catalina: Well Chucky Wucky, I have never liked getting up at 6am and going to work for some jack-monkey in an office so I decided that I needed to take matters into my own hands and start my own business. I thought that I might really enjoy starting a company that sells something unique at flea markets and swap meets. This way I would get to have fun on the weekends and still be super-lazy and lounge around during the week. Chucky Wucky: That makes sense. And how did you come up with the idea of selling mystery boxes? Catalina: Look, everyone likes surprises – it’s in their nature – people like to open birthday presents, Christmas presents, Valentines day presents – they don’t know what’s in the box but they are excited to find out! When I was trying to decide what kinds of things to start selling, I decided to draw on people’s love of surprises. And not only that but people love getting new crap! They fill their houses with the stuff, most of it they use but some of it is just for the fun of getting it! So I thought to myself “Hey, Princess...( Me: I have to say, that’s not a bad idea. I have to wonder though, why you would put the word “crap” in the name of your company and website. Catalina: Look, everyone that I know told me I was crazy. They said that people wouldn’t buy a box for $29 if they didn’t know what was in it. They also said that a company that calls themselves and their own product “crap” would never work. Fortunately, I didn’t listen because these boxes are flying off of the shelves and our customers are ECSTATIC! I actually never listen to other people, it’s kind of my thing along with being extremely funny, obviously. Me: Oh, obviously. Catalina: Anyway, I put the word “crap” in the name mostly for attention! Everyone knows that the more unique your company name and product, the more likely you are to get popular. If I called the company “Mystery Boxes” nobody would notice, it’s too plain. Calling it “Mystery Crap” was funny to me and I knew it would draw attention so it just kind of made sense. I like being funny and I like attention. Me: (LOL) Well, that's a good story. So how did you actually start the business up? Catalina: Well Chuck, I spent every last red cent that I had and bought a whole bunch of wholesale crap online. Then I spent three days sweating my (expletive that starts with "a" and ends with "s") off packing up over 150 boxes of crap and headed down to the county swap meet and rented a table. I have to admit that I was a little nervous at first. I did spend ALL of my money and everyone I know did call me crazy… Me: Yeah, that must have been a little nerve racking… Catalina: Yeah it was but I figured that even if no one bought the boxes, I would get to keep them and at least I would have crap-loads of crap to keep me company afterwards. Me: (LOL) Catalina: Anyway, I set up my table and basically sold out of boxes within 4 hours. It was the best feeling in the world. Plus people kept coming back up to my table to tell me how awesome their stuff was and what a great deal they got! Me: That’s sounds like a lot of fun. Catalina: Oh it was fun Chuck. I also threw a couple of $100 gas cards into two of the boxes so that was really exciting to the two people that got those boxes. One of the ladies actually came back to my table and cried about how much the gas is going to help her this week. Personally, I thought that if she was so hard up for gas money she may not want to buy a box of mystery crap for thirty bucks and might want to put down that $4 hot dog she was eating – but who am I to judge? She was happy, I was happy and my business idea was working! Me: (LOL) You are an interesting character Ms Bird...I mean, Catalina. Catalina: Thanks, actually, you can call me Sarah now. Me: (LOL) Okay, Sarah. So your business has obviously grown and you now have a staff and a warehouse space for all of your crap. What made you decide to launch a website and sell your mystery boxes online? Sarah: Well to me, that was just the next step. My family and I love our company and our jobs so much that we just decided to expand it and work even harder! Mystery boxes are just plain fun, let’s face it. I get reminded of a quote a lot: “A boat is a boat but a mystery box could be anything – even a boat”. That quote is so true, especially with this company. We have so much fun shopping the wholesale companies and now we even have deals with a lot of retailers that are unloading merchandise. The crap that we get our hands on and give to our customers is really, really cool. We are actually able to guarantee that every $29 box of crap will have a retail value of $60 or more! Some boxes have been known to retail for a few hundred dollars - so you never know. Me: That’s a funny quote and I have to say that everything about your business sounds wonderful. I think you might make a lot of money selling these boxes! Sarah: I’ll tell you a little secret; when I was little my Grandmother used to tell me that I had a “gift”. She said that I could sell “crap on a stick” and people would buy it. I have always wanted to believe that, so my life goal is to be able to say “I made a million dollars selling crap in a box”. Me: Sarah and I think your company will do really well. I am on the website placing my order now. Sarah: I figured as much. What more can I say? I think that conversation about sums up the launch of this website and it is a really unique product! I got my box of mystery crap this morning and it was everything that I had hoped for and I would say the contents were worth well over $100. You can visit their website http://MysteryCrap.com for more info and to buy your box of mystery crap! End
|
|
