Mark Lives in IKEA

January 9, 2008 at 10:35 am | Posted in Newsflash, Surfin the Web | Leave a comment
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It’s amazing how interactive advertising is becoming these days. We went from ATL & BTL to the consumer doing their own campaigns for their favorite products and now consumers are actually dictating to companies what they want and how they want it. Companies basically have to just listen and implement. No creativity is really needed on their end anymore.

I loved this article below I just read from Reuters called “New York City too expensive? Try a room at IKEA“. To really get the full picture, you can check out http://www.marklivesinikea.com/.

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NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – When furniture retailer IKEA promoted its latest U.S. sale by asking customers on its Web site if they are “ready to take advantage of us,” one customer took them up on the offer in a novel way.

Mark Malkoff, 31, moved into the IKEA store in Elizabeth, New Jersey, for a week while his New York City apartment is fumigated because his friends’ apartments were too small to accommodate him and hotels were too expensive.

His apartment was full of IKEA furniture, according to his Web site http://www.marklivesinikea.com, so living in the store would be no different — although none of the appliances work and he is using an employee bathroom.

“I’m their house guest, so they take care of me,” Malkoff said in a telephone interview from the store where he took up residence on Monday in a 700 square foot (65 square meter) bedroom with the approval of the Swedish retailer.

“I don’t plan a career of sleeping in stores,” said Malkoff, who last year visited all 171 Starbucks stores in Manhattan in 24 hours and chronicled it on the Internet.

If customers want to come into his room, Malkoff said he makes them take their shoes off. He has received invitations to birthday parties and bar mitzvahs and on Monday night played “laser tag” with the security guards.

On Tuesday night Malkoff, whose wife decided to stay with relatives, is planning to throw a housewarming party. He plans to stay at the store until Saturday.

“People are constantly pointing at me, like I’m an orangutan at the zoo,” he said.

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins; editing by Patricia Reaney)

The Highest Commerical Bungee Jump

January 9, 2008 at 10:14 am | Posted in Around the World, Newsflash | Leave a comment
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Not that I am the least interested in having a heart attack 200 meters up in the air and PAYING FOR IT but there is now an even higher bungee jump for adrenaline seekers to try. It is the Macau Tower in China with an outstanding distance of 233m.

Commercial bungee jumping started around 1986 by AJ Hackett who continues to operate over 10 different bungee destinations worldwide including the Macau Tower.

The other top two destinations for those with a death wish are the Bloukrans River Bridge in South Africa (216m)

and Verzansca Dam located in Switzerland (220m)

There have been even higher records of jumps from helicoptors and balloons with around 9000 feet in distance but I’m not including them in the rundown since they are not open to the public.

So anyone up for it? 😉

Do Loyalty Schemes Payoff?

January 9, 2008 at 10:05 am | Posted in Eye on Beirut, Eye on Kuwait, Girltalk | Leave a comment

In the last year, I’ve been open to exploring alternative means of making money or saving money for that matter and not just blowing them off as cheap change. Because as we get older and responsiblity hits like a pound of rocks holding you down, you quickly realize without shame that “every penny counts.” So far I’m a loyalty card holder for IKEA, Sultan Center, Middle East Airlines (MEA) and I’m a potential winner of the Al Jawhara Account ;).MEA Cedar Miles: I’m very satisfied with my MEA Cedar Miles Card. I’ve already cashed in 2 free trips in the last two years. The good news is that this scheme applies to MEA as well as other airlines in partnership with MEA such as KLM, Air France and Qatar Airways Plus they always do offers like “half points promotions” where you only have to present half the points required to get a free trip. Or if you take a specific trip they mention, you can earn up double the regular amount of points. And then you have the Bank Audi Cedar Miles Card to back it up. It’s a very reasonable and rewarding scheme.

IKEA: I can’t say much yes about this program as I only recently joined. But it seems straight forward and to the point. Each KD = 1 point. You can use every 500 points as 5KD at the IKEA store. I mean if you are gonna shop there anyway, an extra 5KD doesn’t hurt.
Sultan Center: I have about 319 points now and nothing to do with them. I can redeem each 100 points for 1KD but I prefer to wait for some good offer to come along. It’s been 6 months with the same offer. (posted below) I mean maybe its working for other people but I wish they would change more often to give other people something useful for them.

NBK – Jawhara Account: I’ve had the account for about 4 months and I know chances are slim but I still have a good feeling about it. I like the fact that there are 100 winners each month. Those are much better odds than 1 big winner!

In my opinion, loyalty does payoff, not only because you can save here and than but more importantly because it puts your conscious at ease knowing that each time you refill that card or that account, there is a larger chance that something good may be waiting for you. I mean if you’re going to buy the stuff anyway, why not enroll for future surprises.

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