A decade has passed since the Innovations catalogue last flopped onto British doormats between the pages of the Sunday papers.
Described as 'the source of gadgets that really ought to be useful', it was full of the stuff that gets a smile from Jones and a sneer from Meaden before Bannatyne puts the boot in.
Highlights included a 'handy portable shredder' and a 'fun, fur-lined, vibrating golf-club cover'. Solutions in search of a problem.
Another was the 'battery-operated nasal and aural hair trimmer'.
Now my first encounter with this device shocked me to the core. Maybe it was the picture, which showed a bloke shoving the product up his nose and then sticking it in his ear.
I couldn't see why anyone would shell out £9.99 (incl. P&P UK mainland only) for one of these (reduced from £89.99 hurry hurry hurry). What's wrong with a pair of pliers?
But as a swift google reveals, the bottom hasn't dropped out of the electro-assisted rhino-depilatory business yet. There are thousands of the things for sale out there.
They have survived the demise of the Innovations catalogue, and live on in the hearts and briefcases of hirsute Britons.
So I think we can learn an important - and comforting - lesson from the humble nose trimmer.
The fact you can't see value in something doesn't mean someone else won't.
This matters when you're selling something - a product, service, strategy, decision - that you don't entirely believe in.
Thinking about the emotions that drive audience decision-making will help you discover motivators that may work for them, if not for you personally.
Fear of rejection.
With Trimmo, no-one will ever again tell you to go and comb your nose.
The need for security.
Trimmo: sniff with confidence.
The avoidance of embarrassment.
Now you can light a cigarette without setting your nose on fire.
Whatever you're selling, time spent in reconnaissance of audience psychology is seldom wasted.
Except, perhaps, in the case of fun, fur-lined, vibrating golf-club covers.
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