The Long road ahead…

As a child I remember always being fascinated by a bird’s ability to fly southwards in winter. Despite never attending any type of school or receiving any training from their parents, these tiny feathered creatures are almost born with a perfectly tuned in compass.

Surely if a feathered creature, which is usually no more then a few inches tall, can fly southwards for winter, a young fit and healthy 5ft 4 female, in a branded Foxtons mini should find her mission of driving a north bound to Camden fairly straight forward and easy right?

WRONG!

Despite much reassurance from the other drivers, and the car maintenance men that the journey was only going take no longer 30 minutes, this driver took almost three and a half hours. Every employee at Foxtons was left baffled by this extremely length time scale.

Was this driver stuck in bad traffic jam? Did they break down on the main road with no signal and failed to call for help? Or has this driver fallen the biggest trick in the book, in which women really are more then just bad drivers, they’re truly awful.

This driver really did put the word BAD, into female driving, despite completing a extra driving course called Pass Plus. The purpose of Pass Plus is for a qualified driver to gain more experience of driving in a variety of driving conditions, such as up hill, in a rural village, in a congested town and on busy motorway.

One of the things which Pass Plus doesn’t teach is the ability to map read, which is something I quickly came to discover. As I found my self behind the wheel of the Foxtons mini which was heading towards the south of London instead north based destination I had intended.

Many people have asked in wonder, at what point had I realised that my car was heading the completely the wrong way. My answer is always told with a complete poker face expression, “when a GIANT sign on my left, informed me that Heathrow airport was at the next left turning”...... Oh dear...

My Mini Adventure- Part one, a fox was born

To all who know me, I have recently left my first full time job since graduation at Foxtons the estate agent, in their St Johns Wood branch.

With this job I was given a company phone, laptop and car, which out of the three items given, the car was one I adored the most.
Unlike any other car I have previously driven, this car was something very different and I loved it.

All new Foxtons employees have the privilege of trekking down to North Acton to collect their shiny Foxtons mini for the depo known as “Fleet”.

Fleet is a large warehouse which contains all of the branded minis, and the upgrade cars to those who perform well in the company. Home to all of the company’s unclaimed cars, they sit neatly in a row, a sea of silver, and green branded cars with numbers and initials printed on the side of them.

The numbers help for anyone to identify the employee easily should there be any dangerous driving - or in my case, for parking tickets and clamping fines issued by heart less wardens, (by the way, this was something I became a regular to experiencing).
The initials stood for the office we would belong to, such as St John Wood was SJW, Mayfair was MFR, and Camden was CAM etc..

I couldn’t wait to find out which one of these minis would be mine, and after a brief training on how to look after our cars we were handed our keys.

The minute I saw my mini I felt myself almost instantly falling in love. This mini wasn’t like the other almost identical mini standing on the court yard, this one was quite simply perfect. Flawlessly beautiful, I was smitten, as I excitedly opened the door and climbed in the driver’s seat taking in the smell of a new interior and faint hint of vanilla.

But like every other love story, this one had a difficult start.

Fully equipped with the gadgets for their new jobs, the new Foxton’s employees are sent off in own directions to their area meetings which would be taking place in just over 3 and a half hours.

For me I was sent of Camden, which from north Acton, should only take no longer then 40mins. Looking at my map I was given I thought I was in for a easy ride, so my instant plan was to arrive in Camden, prepare my self to look flawless in my new suit, heels and make up and then sneak off for a cheeky latte at Starbucks just before the meeting.



Oh but how wrong I was, sitting in my car I went to set my Sat Nav, but soon realised that I had forgotten to charge it before use, so it had approximately 2 minutes of power left. Digging into my almost bottom less pit of a handbag, I realised that my hand bag really was the home to everything BUT the kitchen sink and yes you’ve guessed it, my charger.

Forcing my self not to panic, I reassured my self that I could just follow the map, as people have used always used maps and survived before the sat nav even existed.
So equipped with my new found map reading confidence I joined the congo line of new Foxtons minis making their way out of the depo and onto to the main road.

One by one the minis left the depo, which was heavily guarded by a set of electronic iron gates. The gates were set to stay open for the exit of 9 minis, but due to sheer misfortune, the driver of the 6th car found the gates sliding shut just as it edged forward to leave. Adding to the misfortune of the scene, the driver of 6th car was me.

Panicking as I realised the gates were about to shut on the front half of my shiny new mini, I looked around looking for the solution to this problem. The main road ahead was a hazard scene with lorries, and cars rushing past at 40mph in both directions. The path behind was filled with an over eager male driver who had positioned his mini scarily close to mine.

So with an iron gate ready to clamp the front half of my car, and no clear exit route, I had only one thing left to do. With a super quick flick I pressed the button to open the window on the driver’s side, stuck my head of the window and shouted the loudest I have ever shouted “OH MY GOD! REVERSE! REVERSE YOUR CARS DAM IT!”.

One by one, the 3 drivers behind me, realised what was about to happen, and started to slowly reverse back in order to give enough room for me to edge back far enough not to get my car clamped in the gates. The overall scene was so nail biting the men who work in the “fleet” depo all rushed out from their offices and from under cars to watch how this scene was going to turn out.

Sadly for me I couldn’t reverse back in time and my mini received what I prefer to call a small “ Beauty spot” or a dent from the gate to everyone else. This “Beauty spot” lead to the birth name of foxy, my now slightly dented Foxtons mini.

But with the clock ticking I quickly recovered from my shock, as the count down to area meetings had only just begun…

To be continued on part two “The long road ahead”

Tweeting the way to an Innocent success (EXAMPLE PRESS RELEASE)

** Please note that this press release was written as a example of creative writing skills**

*All information used is based on real case study*

Tweeting the way to an Innocent success

Innocent is inviting its customers to A Grown-up Meeting (AGM) on the 12th May 2009 through social networking site Twitter.
Innocent is holding the AGM to get customers views on it brand, range and ideas for new products. Customer view- points are already being communicated through Twitter, which lead to the creation of the new banana free” kiwi, apple and lime smoothie after customers said they disliked eating the fruit itself.

Innocent drinks co-founder Adam Balon says “Innocent drinks followers will be able to comment on ideas and views at the AGM via “Tweets” on the social networking site or by attending the meeting at Fruit Towers. Twitter has helped us to listen to more of our customers like Dylan Patel who tweeted to us, asking to include mushrooms in our Veg pots which we are now looking into. And Jo Leggett who also tweeted to us asking to update our quirky captions on our packing. Everyone here at Fruit Towers is looking forward to hearing what our customers want to say”.

Other marketing and media tools Innocent is using to promote the brand name is through Televisions adverts, press, festivals and through its website.

Products in the Innocent Range include Smoothies, Smoothies for kids, Super fruit Smoothies, Thickies, Orange juice, and Veg pots.

The first ever Innocent AGM meeting was held last year (2008) and proved to be such a success that the doors will be opened again to public.

Previous Innocent news updates were limited to just its website but with rise of the twitter phenomenon more fans are hearing from the growing Innocent range.


For further information or to arrange a interview contact:

Sharon Chan:
Sharonchan2301@googlemail.com

Editor Notes:

• Innocent drinks was co-founded in 1999 by Adam Balon, Richard Reed and Jon Wright.
• Innocent started with just 3 employees and now has over 275.
• Innocent also started with just 3 recipes, and now has over 30 recipes.
• Over Two million smoothies are sold a week
• Innocent is stocked in over 10,000 retailers.
• It is also stocked in countries like Shetland Islands, Paris, Amsterdam, Salzburg and Copenhagen.
• Innocent donate 10% of is profit to the Innocent foundation charity which funds rural development projects in countries where we source our fruit from.
• In 2007 Innocent launched The Big Knit in which 50p for every drink sold with its own bobble hat bottle, went to Age Concern. 400,720 little bobble hats were knitted for the bottles and raised £200,360 for Age Concern.
• In 2008 Innocent launched Buy one Grow one tree, in which for every carton of innocent brought, a tree is planted in the rural communities of India. Over 86,000 trees have been planted so far.

Norman Stang Research Seminar in Economics: “Household willingness to pay for organic products”

Norman Stang Research Seminar in Economics: “Household willingness to pay for organic products”

On the 23rd of February, LMBS, welcomed guest lecture Rachel Griffith, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) to discuss household of organic products.

Rachael is currently a professor of Economics at University Central London, and a Deputy Research Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

IFS is an independent research institute which provides an economic analysis, in order to create effective economical performance, with a specific interest in entry conditions, competition, innovation and productivity.

Using research gathered by the TNS market research firm, from 17,162 households in November 2003 to November 2004, Rachel made a economical observation into how much more households were willing to pay for organic products over the same product which is non organic.

Research showed that in the whole of the UK from Nov 2003-Nov 2004, the to

tal household expenditure on food was £37 billion, of which 22% or £535 million were on Organic products. In order to gain an understanding into the purchasing characteristics of organic foods, the attitudes and beliefs of Organic products were placed into three categories; Health, Environment and Quality.

By placing them into these three categories an understanding into how much more consumers were willing to pay for a organic product was made.

Organic products are considered to be of a "higher quality" with households willing to pay £9.83 more, "Healthier" with households willing to pay up to £6.61 more and "More Environmentally friendly" with households willing to pay £1.61 more for a organic over non organic products.

COERC seminar : ‘The Dialectics of Creative Space: Identity Work of Male Cabin Crew’

COERC seminar : ‘The Dialectics of Creative Space: Identity Work of Male Cabin Crew’

On the 21st January 2009, LMBS, welcomed back Professor Ruth Simpson, as a guest speaker to the first Comparative Organization and Equality Research Center (COERC) seminar of 2009.

Ruth has previously worked for the university many years ago, and moved on to work for Brunel University as Professor and Co-editor of 'International Journal of work organization and emotion'.

In 2002 in preparation for her book 'Men in caring occupations: Doing Gender Differently' she researched for several years in the UK, and then in Sydney Australia, drawing upon "How Male cabin crew mobilize and liaise space as they construct and manage their identity".

Gathering research through interviews with 17 male cabin crew members of 5 different Airlines, a observation into how men were feminized in this field of work was made and how this impacts their field of work.

In the confined space, of an airplane, passengers are restricted into their seating areas, with Cabin crew, trained to ensure that the passengers remain as comfortable and happy through-out their journey. In the past airplanes have consisted of only female staff members, trained to entertain and care for the passengers.

Now with male members in the team, the rules and regulations of caring and entertainment to passengers still remains, but male cabin crew are finding they need to adapt their persona and gain a more feminine persona in order to fulfill their jobs.

Despite the male cabin initially undertaking manual tasks as "masculine males" helping passengers to lift heavy luggage, and completing safety checks, all forms of masculinity disappear instantly as soon as they start to serve drinks
Passengers regard them a "trolley dollies" and "camp" as they continue to provide a happy friendly service, no matter how kind, or angry the passenger.

This seminar summarizes the feelings of a male cabin crew in female dominated work place, and how they cope with the pressure.