Racks for brainwaves: Store sells ideas over the counter

Production goes on in the think-tank `factory’ behind the store, where around 20 young people, ranging from lawyers to art historians to students, are busy at work, thinking up new ideas.

The customer can buy one which he needs at that moment. Be it an idea for a gift, a concept for a unique party, an imaginative apology Brainstore offers an idea tailor-made to the customer’s needs.

A quick idea which is ready in 15 minutes costs around 5.50 dollars. In more complicated cases, the search for an idea costs somewhat more. The half-hour rate is upwards of 17 dollars.

“We offer everything up to and including comprehensive concepts. These can take several months,”Mettler says. The cost rises correspondingly.

Brainstore has been operating for a few weeks, while the think tank out behind it has been around a few years, producing a handful of `carryout’ ideas.

In one case, the father of two teenaged daughters needed a strategy of how to reduce his telephone bills. For 17 dollars, Brainstore delivered three proposals: to convert the private telephone at home into a coin-operated one, to install a loudspeaker system which would carry any call which lasts more than a minute to every room in the apartment, or to ask a relative to become a sponsor for the telephone bill, in lieu of any presents.

One father needed some ideas about the party for the christening of his child. Brainstore proposed that he fill a suitcase with all sorts of crafts materials and party guests would be encouraged to create gift coupons which the child in the course of its later life could then redeem.

This idea was enthusiastically received by the father, and it turned out to be a hit with theparty guests. Brainstore charged about 33 dollars for it.

The latest client is a local female politician who needs an idea for her election campaign. Mettler is very discrete about the matter, saying only: “The lady could not afford to hire a public relations agency. We were just right for her.”

Before the idea-makers get down to work, they first sit down to discuss a client’s needs, his aims, and financial framework.

While the thinkers are racking their brains for ideas, the client should remain reachable. This can take place via the Internet, and ideas can also be transmitted via e-mail and a password. The client can pay with a credit card.

Mettler’s thinkers pull out all the stops in order to come up with ideas. “We don’t just wait for a brainstorm,” he says. His staff surfs the Internet, does role-playing and meets for brainstorming sessions, preferably in what is called the `creative room’.

There, Mettler says, the best ideas evolve. The creative room consists of a bath tub in the middleand chairs surrounding it for his staff to watch.“We used to have piranhas swimming around in it and this was very inspirational. But they ate each other up,” he said.

When an employee does not have to produce a quick idea, he or she can work on longer-term projects.

The thinkers’ factory is particularly specialised for the youth market segment over the past few years.

Among other products, it has developed a youth rail card for the Swiss railways. It fine-tunes advertisements for young people, and provides new design ideas for packaging old products.