The Power of Advertising
I forget how we got on the conversation, but this morning Dameruth and I were talking about the old days of us working at Wal-Mart.
I worked at wal-mart after college, when I thought I might go into management. I had the skills and talents for the job, and did great stuff, but the work was more complex than that-- under the first manager who worked there, it was fraught with political perils and infighting and anti-woman environs. There were some terrible times, and yet some interesting ones too as I examined how people really worked and interacted, and how management could shape that environment. But there were good times too, expecially under the replacement manager, and in fact the department I helped run, the computer and electronics department, was ranked 6th in the ENTIRE NATION for sales.
My co-workers had trouble adjusting to me. I was strange. I didn't like to gossip, do nothing and be idle while on the clock, nor complain without finding some solution to the complaint. In fact, I was told by one standoffish co-wroker later when we were friends that people thought I was a 'spy' for management! THe politically minding manoevering folks thought for a while I was metnally slow when I chose to not interact back along those lines. But with time, I was a respected employee by all levels of workers and managment, and I remember many of my co-workers and occaisions with pleasure.
Anyway there was a particular story I was going to tell today, but RUth had to run to work, so here it is, and its on the power of advertising.
For a while, I worked the phones which involved answering and directing phone calls, as well as makjing the voice over announcements on the intercom. Having training in writing advertisements, the quality of the over the air wordings did improve, but a friend and I had an argument over how effective they really were. Sherla was a sweet but crochety middle aged lady who at the time ran the snack bar. So I told her I would prove to her advertising worked.
We worked out a dare, that I would sell an amazing amoutn of chili-cheese dogs before 10 in the morning. SO I wrote an ad, and read it every 15 minutes over the loudspeaker. And she came to me later that day saying, with a shaken face, that she had never sold that many chili dogs before noon, and it was a good run for any time.
THe other interesting story of working the phones was that I have pretty good inflection and voice control for non-singing endeavors. Voice over work, narrative, publich speaking all work pretty well. Several times I would answer the phone with the standard official greeting: "Thank you for calling your local wal-mart, how may I direct your call" only to hear a stunned pause at the other end to which I would end by saying, "Hello, are you okay? Can I help you?" and the person would stammer, "I thought you were a computer" or "is this a real person?" To which I responded yes, of course, why do they ask? Well, they would reply in some form, you voice was so nice it didn't sound real.
I worked at wal-mart after college, when I thought I might go into management. I had the skills and talents for the job, and did great stuff, but the work was more complex than that-- under the first manager who worked there, it was fraught with political perils and infighting and anti-woman environs. There were some terrible times, and yet some interesting ones too as I examined how people really worked and interacted, and how management could shape that environment. But there were good times too, expecially under the replacement manager, and in fact the department I helped run, the computer and electronics department, was ranked 6th in the ENTIRE NATION for sales.
My co-workers had trouble adjusting to me. I was strange. I didn't like to gossip, do nothing and be idle while on the clock, nor complain without finding some solution to the complaint. In fact, I was told by one standoffish co-wroker later when we were friends that people thought I was a 'spy' for management! THe politically minding manoevering folks thought for a while I was metnally slow when I chose to not interact back along those lines. But with time, I was a respected employee by all levels of workers and managment, and I remember many of my co-workers and occaisions with pleasure.
Anyway there was a particular story I was going to tell today, but RUth had to run to work, so here it is, and its on the power of advertising.
For a while, I worked the phones which involved answering and directing phone calls, as well as makjing the voice over announcements on the intercom. Having training in writing advertisements, the quality of the over the air wordings did improve, but a friend and I had an argument over how effective they really were. Sherla was a sweet but crochety middle aged lady who at the time ran the snack bar. So I told her I would prove to her advertising worked.
We worked out a dare, that I would sell an amazing amoutn of chili-cheese dogs before 10 in the morning. SO I wrote an ad, and read it every 15 minutes over the loudspeaker. And she came to me later that day saying, with a shaken face, that she had never sold that many chili dogs before noon, and it was a good run for any time.
THe other interesting story of working the phones was that I have pretty good inflection and voice control for non-singing endeavors. Voice over work, narrative, publich speaking all work pretty well. Several times I would answer the phone with the standard official greeting: "Thank you for calling your local wal-mart, how may I direct your call" only to hear a stunned pause at the other end to which I would end by saying, "Hello, are you okay? Can I help you?" and the person would stammer, "I thought you were a computer" or "is this a real person?" To which I responded yes, of course, why do they ask? Well, they would reply in some form, you voice was so nice it didn't sound real.