“A workaholic lives on fear. It’s fear that drives him to show up all the time. The best defense, apparently, is a good attendance record.

A new class of jobs (and workers) is creating a different sort of worker, though. This is the person who works out of passion and curiosity, not fear.

The passionate worker doesn’t show up because she’s afraid of getting in trouble, she shows up because it’s a hobby that pays. The passionate worker is busy blogging on vacation… because posting that thought and seeing the feedback it generates is actually more fun than sitting on the beach for another hour. The passionate worker tweaks a site design after dinner because, hey, it’s a lot more fun than watching TV.

It was hard to imagine someone being passionate about mining coal or scrubbing dishes. But the new face of work, at least for some people, opens up the possibility that work is the thing (much of the time) that you’d most like to do. Designing jobs like that is obviously smart. Finding one is brilliant.”

I’m going to start this year’s blogging with a bit of a moan…
This time last year, following Marketing’s Irritating Ads list I wrote a post (see Jan 07) giving my opinion of these ‘memorable’ ads. So with regard to this year’s list for hitting the number one spot, Injury Lawyers4U - Congratulations.

It is a shame I can’t sue them for the pain and suffering I have endured being repeatedly subjected to their terrible T.V adverts. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, think yourself fortunate.

Injury Lawyers4U? Maybe so… but they certainly aren’t for me.

We are now hearing more and more about how recruiters are looking at candidates social networking sites as a basis, or at least an indication of whether an individual is suitable for a job. This seems rediculous to me. Working on the assumption that your average employer wouldn’t follow you down the pub on a Friday night and judge what your work performance would be like based on that, why should investigating you on Facebook be acceptable?

The whole point of having an interview is that you are given a clean slate and a fair opportunity to demonstrate your intelligence, knowledge, ability, likeability and professionalism - by invading our personal lives in this way employers are taking this opportunity away from us. Most employees know how to seperate business and pleasure, I think it’s the employers who need to be distinguishing between the two.

It has to be said the food was delicious, service was of a high standard (as far as I’m concerned this can simply be measured by how regularly your champagne is topped up!) and the entertainment was fairly good.

Congratulations to Waitrose for winning in the Food, Supermarket category, Lush - winner in Cosmetics and Urban Decay Cosmetics (which I personally love) also nominated for an award.

Coincidentally, I was reading Marketing while on the train back from Surrey yesturday and spotted that the RSPCA had been chosen for the regular ‘We’ll Call You’ review. This is where a different company is chosen each week who Marketing then call while posing as a customer. The company is then given a review and a score out of 10 for their info, help etc. This week they spoke to the RSPCA about advice for keeping dogs safe on Bonfire night. The result was a score of 9 out of 10 as the member of staff was ‘polite’, ‘demonstrated her awareness that each pet is different and responds differently to fireworks in completely different ways’ and ’she took pride in the advice she gave’.

As an animal lover, I very much support the good work the RSPCA does and it’s great to see them receiving some appreciation for it. Well Done RSPCA!

As we know, it’s not about loosing it’s about substituting which actually, us humans are very good at! Being adaptable and resourceful is the key to survival for us.

I was sent a pen the other week from a company that sells environmentally friendly office equipment and I love my pen! Maybe I’m just easily impressed but I couldn’t believe how good the quality was and how good I felt using it. I had no idea quite how many recycled products were available for offices.
Check out the links below to find out a bit more about my Eco pen or similar initiatives:

http://www.ecopromogifts.co.uk/desktopgifts/

http://www.ifsol.co.uk/ecoProducts.php?gclid=CJf4l6Deso8CFQeTMAodTktGKw

I am excited to have read that Royal Mail have now issued their Harry Potter stamps which I don’t doubt, will be hugely popular. Not really a part of the Potter craze myself, however I am very interested to see these stamps in the flesh and maybe buy a few myself! Well done Royal Mail for getting in on the action and congratulations on the genius marketing you have used on your website to lure us in.

If you want to market yourself in style, get some of these dinky, personalised mini cards by Moo. They’re good for business or personal use. You can even buy mini card holders. The only thing that differentiates them from regular business cards is their size, yet somehow - it works. Love em! Have a look at my cards, designed by my friend dave:

Britney Spears is one of many celebrities to have been caught out by the media with a bit of contradictory behaviour (as far as endorcements are concerned). Pepsi let her go after she was caught by photographers drinking rival brand soft drink Coca-Cola.

Ditch
It isn’t really asking a lot to expect your celebrity to avoid competitor brands while they are paid huge amounts of money to support yours. Britney drinking Coca-Cola is damaging for Pepsi who have spent time and money creating a perception for consumers. Demonstrating commitment to a brand may also prove to be worthwhile in the long term for the celebrity.

No Ditch
If it isn’t written into the contract that your celebrity endorser cannot at any point, publically be seen consuming a product produced by a competitor, then you shouldn’t expect any favours. You will only get what you pay for - business is business.

So, you have a choice… you can ditch now, play it safe and avoid losing money later on - or you can no ditch, take a risk and you might just end up making a lot more money that you expected!

I’ll be twenty two in a few weeks and that annual question is now arising ‘So what do you want for your birthday?’. I expect I’m getting nearer to the age where people will stop asking so lets make the most of this, what do I want? More sunshine in England, a smaller bum, George Bush to say something sensible, my own castle, less poverty and destruction in the world - hang on… I can do something about that last one!

Last year I had a friend adopt a Bengal tiger for me from a wildlife reserve in Nepal, through the WWF. The funding is put towards helping protect these endangered, beautiful tigers from poachers. Tiger numbers have apparently dropped over the last 100 years from 100,000 to just 5,000.

This year I have asked another friend for fertiliser (the natural stuff) provided by Oxfam to increase the productivity of soil in areas where crops are scarce. I have also asked my dad to buy me a gift through Oxfam - fishing nets. These are given, along with training and other equipment to people from poor communities. I bought him some seeds for christmas for people to plant trees (although he seemed most impressed with the paper tree template that came in the envelope)

These gifts are great as they are available from well-known organisations and a large amount of information is provided as to how the money they are recieving is being spent, which I think is important. Another great thing about these gifts is that they cater for every price range.

Lets get some perspective shall we? If you spend £15 on two mosquito nets you may save a child’s life. That’s also five less beers in the pub this Saturday night which may save you from waking up on Sunday with sick on your clothes, a stinking hang-over and some memories you may wish to forget! If that’s not a good reason to help, what is?

If you can only stretch to a fiver, why not buy two text books for some children in need of education? Please buy a charity gift, if you do it in the next ten minutes you wont forget will you? If you decide to make a purchase, leave me a comment and lets see if you we can really do this viral marketing thing!

http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com/

http://www.charity-gift.co.uk/

Why do I love this company so much? Having done quite a bit of research on them, they genuinely seem to be an ethical company in every sense of the word. I trust them - and just think, every time you purchase and consume one of their products, you aren’t just bumping up their profits but bumping up your health in a big way too.

Thank you innocent!