Home Office Jokes and Humor - Performance
An American automobile company and a Japanese auto company decided to have a competitive boat race on the Detroit River. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance. On the big day, they were as ready as they could be. The Japanese team won by a mile.
Afterwards, the American team became discouraged by the loss and their morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found. A Continuous Measurable Improvement Team of “Executives” was set up to investigate the problem and to recommend appropriate corrective action. Their conclusion: The problem was that the Japanese team had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, whereas the American team had 1 person rowing and 8 people steering.
The American Corporate Steering Committee immediately hired a consulting firm to do a study on the management structure. After some time and billions of dollars, the consulting firm concluded that “too many people were steering and not enough rowing.” To prevent losing to the Japanese again next year, the management structure was changed to “4 Steering Managers, 3 Area Steering Managers, and 1 Staff Steering Manager” and a new performance system for the person rowing the boat to give more incentive to work harder and become a six sigma performer. “We must give him empowerment and enrichment.” That ought to do it.
The next year the Japanese team won by two miles. The American Corporation laid off the rower for poor performance, sold all of the paddles, cancelled all capital investments for new equipment, halted development of a new canoe, awarded high performance awards to the consulting firm, and distributed the money saved as bonuses to the senior executives.
Read more…
Always Leave Them Laughing: Integrating Humor into Your Trade Show …
Always Leave Them Laughing: Integrating Humor into Your Trade Show Marketing Campaign
It is important to remember that your trade show campaign should be fully integrated into your marketing plan as a whole. Consistency in corporate image is key. Humor can be a great way to convey your marketing message….
Enlarge Image One of the major objectives of any trade show exhibit is to create a lasting impression in the attendee’s mind. After all, if a visitor can’t remember you, how can he give you his business? You also want to create a positive impression, and unfortunately, that’s harder to do than the negative equivalent.
Which brings us to humor. People love to laugh - and they like other people to laugh with them. Witness the almost constant flood of jokes and cartoons that flit across the internet: Proof that humor cannot be stopped. You’ll often find that people go out of their way to remember great jokes, where they’ll never, ever stop to jot down the details of an eye-catching graphic. This makes humor an invaluable marketing tool –if you can make it serve your corporate objectives.
Some of you are dismissing this idea out of hand. "There’s nothing funny about my product!" I can hear you saying. Well, what’s funny about rental cars? Beer? Car insurance? None of these items are inherently funny, yet companies in all three sectors have effectively used humor to fix their products in the public eye.
It is important to remember that your trade show campaign should be fully integrated into your marketing plan as a whole. If you are using humor in your television and print media, bring it to the show floor. However, if you are known as a stoic and conservative company, playing for laughs at the convention center will fall flat. Consistency in corporate image is key.
What can we learn from companies that have successfully used humor? There are four key lessons.
Avis Rental Cars "We try harder" campaign centers on humorous scenarios highlighting what would happen if a rental car company wasn’t willing to go the extra mile. They film ridiculous situations, such as an attendant handing out books to customers waiting in long lines, and contrast them with the bright, efficient service a customer could expect from their company. It gets a chuckle - but you’d better believe that when a weary traveler is eyeing the rental car company kiosks at the airport, an image of that book-toting attendant flashes through his mind.
Key #1: Exaggerate the norm.
Contrast exaggerated examples of industry ‘norms’ with how your company excels. A restaurant chain that serves large portions could highlight the much smaller servings to be had at the competitor’s. Wendy’s did this very effectively with the "Where’s The Beef?" campaign in the Eighties. Be careful not to explicitly or implicity identify your competitors, or you’ll be hearing from some very angry lawyers.
Remember the Budwiser frogs? How about the lizards? Or the donkey that wanted to be a Clydesdale? Each of these campaigns was phenomenonally successful, yet only tangentially related to the product at hand. Each approach was slightly different. Frogs croaking Bud - wis - er can be inherently funny, especially if you’ve already had a few brews yourself. It also appealed to the coveted young drinker demographic, as studies have shown an intense brand loyalty among drinkers, generally established in the early twenties. The lizard campaign capitalized on the wry, sarcastic humor enjoyed by Budwiser’s target audience. The donkey campaign tied into the traditional Clydesdale imagery, a strong if staid marketing tool.
Key #2: Know your target audience.
Jokes that appeal to one demographic may not work with another. Gen Y shoppers have especially sharp funny bones, and may appreciate dry wit. Tie in your classic marketing efforts whenever possible.
Geico and AFLAC have recently done very well with their talking animal ads. By using the same animals over and over to reinforce the marketing message - after all, that poor duck could surely use some disability insurance of his own by now! - both companies have created a brand awareness second to none. Ask the random person to identify a disability insurance company, and chances are that they’ll tell you about AFLAC. Ask them about another disability insurance company, and you’ll be lucky if they can name even one.
Key #3: Create a character.
Create a ‘character’ as part of your brand image. This character should show up EVERYWHERE - including television commercials, on the literature you distribute at the show, in your signage and graphics, and potentially as stuffed animals. The Serta Sheep toys have taken on a life of their own, and each and every one of them goes out with the company name blazoned on the side. That’s humorous marketing at work. Consumers buy these secondary products because of the laugh-factor, and bring a constant advertisement into their home. The influence on subsequent purchasing decisions may be minor, but it is in fact there.
Humor can be a great way to convey your marketing message. Geico has done this very well with the "I saved money on my car insurance by switching to Geico!" series of commercials. Exercise equipment salesmen, politicians, animated characters - all have been pressed into service to recite those ten words. Using different settings keeps the audience engaged, while constant repetition drives the message home.
Key #4: Repetition counts.
Remember, consumers need to hear a message at least six times before they’ll recall it easily. The trick is to keep the presentation fresh while the message remains constant.
Comedians world-wide will tell you that humor is a tough business. It’s hard to tell what will make one person laugh and another roll their eyes in disgust. However, if a joke falls flat for a comedian, they simply move on to the next joke and keep moving. If you’ve invested tons of time and money in your humor campaign, you need to know these three things:
1. It must be funny. Test the campaign on objective people. Lots of objective people. If the majority laugh, you’re golden. However, if less than half the people get the joke, drop it.
2. It must be quick. There are great funny jokes that take half an hour to tell. That’s nice. Inflict them on your relatives or when you’ve got a whole room full of trapped subordinates. Customers aren’t going to give you that much of their time. You’ve got half a minute tops to get them laughing.
3. It must reflect well on your company. Ethnic, racial, sexual, and gender based humor has absolutely no place in the corporate world. Perceived slurs - even if they are made in the guise of a joke - will travel around the world as fast as the internet can move, and suddenly your company will have all kinds of attention they don’t want.
Laughing is a lot of hard work, isn’t it? But once you’ve found the right balance, you’ll have an advertising campaign that will draw the crowds into your exhibit - and more importantly, toward buying your products and services.
Written by Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: "Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies," working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. Trade Show Marketing by "The Trade Show Coach" - Susan Friedmann, CSP. For a free copy of "10 Common Mistakes Exhibitors Make", e-mail: article4@thetradeshowcoach.com; website: http://www.thetradeshowcoach.com
|
Laughter inside the Workplace
Laughter inside the Workplace
The daily deadline you need to meet, targets you got to reach, and clients you have to please: all of these can cause overwhelming stress that lower your productivity inside the office. Turn your frown upside down and have a sunny disposition despite the presence of work-related stress! It might be a clich, but laughter is the best medicine — even inside the workplace.
The daily deadline you need to meet, targets you got to reach, and clients you have to please: all of these can cause overwhelming stress that lower your productivity inside the office. Turn your frown upside down and have a sunny disposition despite the presence of work-related stress! It might be a clich, but laughter is the best medicine — even inside the
workplace.
A scientific study concluded that neuroendocrine and other stress-related hormones decrease during episodes of laughter. This supports the conception that humor relieves stress at no time. It is therefore ideal to have a good laugh at work , especially when times are pretty rough or bleak.
Joel Goodman, founder of the Humor Project Inc., the first global organization to focus on the positive power of humor says "It’s a natural tendency for some folks to tighten up during tough times, but we need to lighten up." He even narrated during the Great Depression in 1929; a wave of humor was witnessed and simultaneously needed "in order to balance the seriousness of the times."
That is why even if you’re struggling with making both ends meet and you experience stress almost every day, we all need a good laugh. Aside from reliving stress, humor can help you and your career. You can do better at work and be less stressed, especially during crunch time at work. Furthermore, humor can help you step up the career ladder. According to a study from the Harvard Business Review on "What Makes a Good Leader," one of the key characteristics of a great manager is a "self-deprecating sense of humor."
Take this advice seriously. You don’t have to be another Adam Sandler in the office — all you need to do is focus on your work and be professional while maintaining a positive vibe inside the office. You can start by limiting you’re whining at work and allowing yourself to laugh at jokes at the office.
| By Mary Shad Moss Published: 9/6/2008 |
Laugh and the Work World Laughs With You
Laugh and the Work World Laughs With You
Stress abounds today’s work environment-moody bosses & co-workers, repetitive tasks & unpredictable market pressures. Humor can help maintain a healthy balance between the pressure & seriousness which comes from high stakes jobs & a competitive marketplace.
Enlarge Image Many of today’s work environments are rife with moody bosses and co-workers, repetitive tasks and unpredictable market pressures. Stress abounds. Managers often tell me they can’t afford the time or cost for my humor workshops; how can they afford not to address workplace stress.
We know clinically that laughter and play have medicinal qualities, offering physical, psychological and physiological benefits as well. In the workplace, humor and fun can increase productivity, encourage creativity, enhance team building, and thus improve esprit de corps.
While we may not be able to control everything that happens to us in our jobs and work environments, we do have control over how we choose to react. I coach others how to create an environment which is safe and friendly, and use humor to help maintain a healthy balance between the pressure and seriousness which comes from high stakes jobs and a competitive marketplace. Remember that humor starts from within. Being able to laugh at your own foibles goes a long way toward creating a healthy work climate in which to flourish.
The following are activities and strategies for you as individuals, workgroups and managers. Be creative and use these ideas to stimulate your own remedies to workplace stress.
- Adorn your work area with cartoons, headlines or funny photos which bring a smile to your face and visiting co-workers’. Whether you’re surrounded by your favorite Pez dispensers childhood, or wry cartoons that speak to your tastes, let your work area comfort and humor you while taking some of the edge off the standard office decor.
- Tap a co-worker to be your humor-partner. Bring a daily joke to share. Commiserate about funny workplace events. Keep each other buoyed with good cheer. When the chips are down your humor partner can chip away at your depression, and vice versa.
- Don’t think cubicles limit your humor options. I’ve seen shower curtains, umbrellas and other devices used effectively to set a light or semi-serious tone. For some, creativity flourishes behind their cubicle’s shower curtain. People tampering with your work area? Don’t get angry…protect it with yellow "Crime Scene" tape!
- Subscribe to a humor website to be e-mailed a free daily or weekly humorous story, joke and anecdote. Sites such as www.netfunny.com/rhf/ or www.oraclehumor.com/ are two examples.
Are You Laughin’ At Me? One manager, known for his moodiness, acknowledged it with a "Mood-O-Meter" outside his door. Both he and his employees took turns forecasting his mood: from fire-breathing to variable clouds to periodic eruptions…proceed at your own risk. Don’t underestimate the power of self-effacing humor for making yourself more accessible and liked.
Room for Laughter. Some companies designate a room, work area or corner of their office as a romper room, where frolicking and silliness is allowed. Whether yours has a punching bag, games, a dartboard or foosball, it’s a room for letting off steam and taking a break from the grind.
Whine Not. Everyone loathes whiners yet we all need to blow off steam periodically. One group of creative trainers and their manager decreed Thursdays to be effective whining days. They self-policed themselves the rest of the week, making sure not to whine. Yet even their Thursday gripes had a departmental sanction and somehow seemed healthier. After all, they belly ached together. A ripple effect actually improved the morale of departments adjacent to theirs!
Meting Out Humor. Many professionals approach meetings with trepidation. A dash of humor can make a difference. For regular meetings earmark one or two minutes each meeting for a humorous interlude. In one workgroup a "humor hand" rotates from meeting to meeting. Employees take turns setting a lighter tone to the meeting, insuring everybody is engaged. An anecdote, verbal or physical activity focuses the group on the task at hand and brings colleagues together in a spirit of fun.
When not to use Humor. Not all humor is good humor. Humor that hurts, ostracizes or is cruel will have a detrimental effect on others and you. Strive for humor that is inclusive, creative and captures our human essence. By now you know that sexist, racist, ageist jokes and crude humor are not only inappropriate, but can lead to sanctions, termination or even lawsuits. Be sensitive when telling jokes involving terminations, reductions in force (RIFs) and personal tragedies. Their hurt can linger long after the fact. . When in doubt…leave it out!
Appropriate humor can make hard tasks easier, collaborations fun and certainly make workdays go faster. Laugh, and the work world laughs with you!
Since the age of eleven when he went door-to-door selling Used Jokes, Craig Harrison has been connecting with customers through humor. As a professional speaker and corporate trainer Craig Harrison’s Expressions of Excellence provides sales and service solutions through speaking. Contact him at (888) 450-0664, through his website http://www.ExpressionsofExcellence.com or via e-mail: humor@craigspeaks.com
| By Craig Harrison Published: 11/21/2006 |
Use Humour To Earn Cash From Home
Use Humour To Earn Cash From Home
We see it often, but perhaps not the way we should. I am talking about humorous emails. Discover how to use humour and other content to make your emails viral and increase your chances of earning extra cash from home
Recently, an interactive marketing agency, Sharpe Partners, showed that a whopping 89 percent of Internet users in America alone, share information with other people by e-mail. Empirical data can be very useful to you as a marketer because it reveals hitherto hidden strategies that you can use to earn cash from home.
For those individuals and companies that use self-perpetuating techniques to sell products and services, this is excellent news. This actually means that the type of content that you send in emails as well as the conspicuously viral nature of emails lend themselves to being useful techniques in the arsenal of the astute marketer. The most prominent of these content types of course is humor.
The second most popular type of content is news, followed by health care and medical information. After these, religious and spiritual material, games, business and personal finance information follow, with sports or hobbies making up the pack. It is therefore quite easy to see that humor is a very good content type around which to build a marketing campaign and earn cash from home.
Cartoons, jokes and funny video clips are some of the things that can be attached to an e-mail to really be sure that it will go viral. People just naturally want to pass on something that makes them laugh. I do it. Don’t you?
As you can well understand, your friends and associates are a lot more likely to hit the forward button and send your vital email to their friends and relatives if it is an "advertainment" rather than an advertisement.
Not too long ago, about 35 million people received an e-mail containing a picture which was taken in Disneyland. It only took about a minute to see and appreciate the humor, but there was Donald Duck lying prone in front of the famous Cinderella Castle. The title of the picture was "Bird Flu has hit Disneyland". It was a viral e-mail advertising created by Disneyland and used to make light of what’s serious situation, but it worked.
I would venture to guess that many people who own a computer have seen that picture… and therefore have seen the advertisement for Disneyland. The bird flu epidemic was certainly newsworthy and has the potential to attract an enormous amount of attention. Any brand or company that cares to, can capture this type of news and put a humorous spin to it, and in the process create an effective e-mail campaign.
Remember that people are much more likely to share a joke or a funny picture than anything else so you would be well advised to include humor in your e-mail campaign. This is just one more way you can really earn extra cash from home as you build your second income stream.
How To Use Humor to Earn Cash From Home
Anthony Chambers is an online marketer and expert writer. He specializes in exposing creative ways to earn multiple streams of income and becoming financially independent. Find out how he can help you at his popular website
|
Tumbleweeds for $25? Dumb Business Ideas You Wish You%u2019d Thought of
Tumbleweeds for $25? Dumb Business Ideas You Wish You’d Thought of
Selling tumbleweeds? These and other stupid ideas are actually making their creators the piles of cash you wish you had.
By Anastacia Mott Austin
Cabbage Patch Kids are back. In honor of the 25th anniversary of their "birth," Play Along Toys is reissuing the original collection of the ugly dolls this year, complete with "nostalgic" anniversary packaging.
I will admit that my first job was working at a Children’s Palace store (think Toys R Us, but more low-rent) at Christmas-time no less, in 1980-something. Everyone wanted one of those homely little dolls with the birth certificates and sad, adopt-me stories. And boy, were they willing to do anything to get one. Working in a toy store, I was used to seeing drooling tantrums, wild-eyed whining, unreasonable begging, and the like. And that was the parents.
I’ll admit, I got caught up in the madness. I used my employee discount and bought, excuse me, adopted a Cabbage Patch Kid. Jimmy Raymond was his name. Somehow over the years I lost track of ol’ Jimmy Raymond, and he’s probably sitting up in my dad’s attic, along with my old dance trophies and middle-school yearbooks, crying his ugly little eyes out. Don’t feel bad for his creator, Xavier Roberts, though. Jimmy Raymond and his millions of unsightly adopted siblings made Roberts a billionaire.
But why did this craze take off? What makes one idea a dud and another a brilliant marketing ploy?
Remember pet rocks? Well, neither do I, I’m not that old, thank you very much. But if I were that old, I’d tell you how entrepreneur Gary Dahl was sitting in a bar with his buddies one night in 1975 and came up with the idea of selling rocks as pets. It was mostly a joke, but he sold the idea as the lowest-maintenance pet ever. The pet rock cost Gary Dahl less than 50 cents apiece to create and package, and they sold for $3.95 a pop. Dahl sold over five million of the obedient little pebbles and…you do the math.
Dahl hit on something, but to this day no one knows quite what. Some ideas that seem smart never quite catch on, and then you’ve got people like the tumbleweed lady.
Linda Katz might be loathe to admit it now but the idea for her business, the Prairie Tumbleweed Farm, started out as a joke, too.
Katz needed to learn html and how create a website, so she made up the idea of selling tumbleweeds, which were everywhere outside her Kansas home, just as a practice tool. But then people started trying to buy them. She didn’t really think it would last long. "When I got an order I was just amazed," said Katz to reporters. "And each order I got, I thought it would probably be the last order. I remember thinking they would probably get them and send them back immediately as soon as they find out what they are."
Nope. Katz today operates a thriving business selling…tumbleweeds. Twenty-five dollars for a large one, $20 for medium, and $15 for a small one. The Prairie Tumbleweed Farm is especially popular in Japan.
Suggestions on the site for how to use a tumbleweed include making a tumbleweed Christmas tree or table ornament. There is a section on tumbleweed history, and information on how each tumbleweed is quality tested. In fact, the site states that NASA orders its tumbleweeds ("To test the Mars Tumbleweed Rover!") exclusively from the Prairie Tumbleweed Farm.
Why, oh why, you’re thinking right now, didn’t I think of that? Maybe because ideas like this have to be thought of as a joke as first for it to fly. No one would do it otherwise.
Other wacky business ideas that somebody, somewhere had the spare time to think of:
Wigs for dogs: Why should Britney Spears get to have all the fun with her crazy wigs? Check out "Wiggles," the premier wigs-for-dogs website. Wigglesdogwigs.com/products.
Perhaps inspired by Linda Katz’s tumbleweed emporium, Curious Country Crafts sells, among other things, bags of dirt ($11.95 each), dried ornamental grass ($12.95, marked down from $22!), bags of skipping stones ($9.99 each, also marked down - but a bargain when considering pet rock prices), and yep, tumbleweeds. Their tumbleweed prices range from $15.99 for a Baby Tumbleweed, to $42.99 Gigantic Tumbleweed.
Roadkill Teddy: If you’re bored with the standard teddy bear, then what about purchasing your very own plush roadkill animal? Twitch the Raccoon is the first spawn from the weird minds of the folks at Roadkill Toys (roadkilltoys.com). Twitch is an adorable stuffed plush raccoon, just like so many others, except that his eyeball is coming out of his head and he’s got plush intestines splayed about him. Complete with sense of humor, the site lists Twitch’s obituary, including his date of birth (and unfortunate death by road squishing), and other interesting facts.
What about the guy who charges parents $10 to write a letter "from Santa" to their child? For ten bucks, Santa’s "helpers" will mail the request to Santa at the North Pole (where he has an actual address!), and he’ll stamp them and send them to your precious angels. Even better, there’s a page on the site (complete with a photo of Santa clutching a fistful of cash, I kid you not) where you can become an affiliate of Santa’s and make money bilking stupid people, too!
So how can you capitalize on your own zany sense of humor and lack of a day job to make zillions selling stupid stuff?
All kidding aside, marketing experts will tell you that anyone can launch a successful business, keeping a few points in mind: don’t invest too much to begin with, make sure the product costs a lot less to produce that what you’re selling it for, scope out a niche market of people who will really go crazy over your product, and it never hurts to have a sense of humor. Often people are actually buying the joke you’re telling with silly products, like the pet rock.
Think of what you have a lot of in your area that other people around the world might be deprived of. At my house it’d be dandelions, crab grass, and those sharp, spiked balls that fall off of my neighbor’s trees and hurt like bejesus when you step on them.
I’d never thought of them as marketable products before, but I’m sure someone, somewhere would be willing to pay for them. Right?
| By Buzzle Staff and Agencies Published: 4/4/2008 |
Why Is Humor In The Workplace Important?
Why Is Humor In The Workplace Important?
Why has humor become a recognized asset in the workplace? Among others, there are the principal reasons why humor is important: it energizes, helps facilitate communication, and build relationships.
1. Humor Promotes Attending and Energizes
We know that all good lecturers have many jokes, stories, and anecdotes that are shared in order to command attention and energize the audience. Humor wakes us up and increases our attending. An office bulletin board loaded with cartoons, one liners, jokes, pictures, etc. is one way to invite humor into the workplace. A few moments of humor at work can lead to increased productivity as the newly energized employee returns to his or her task.
In working environments where humor is supported there develops a culture that utilizes the humor to reduce stress and provide perspective. We have all heard humor directed at lawyers, medical personnel, scientists, engineers, business persons, educators, etc. Learning to laugh at ourselves and our work lightens the load.
Humor is a major career asset, so let’s be serious about humor and use humor to lighten our seriousness in the workplace. As we increase our personal humor quotient and spread our humor contagiously to others, we will begin to see the "lite" at the end of the tunnel.
2. Humor Facilitates Communication
Humor provides a non-threatening medium through which an employee or employer can communicate with others without intensifying the emotional temperature of the relationship. Consider the frazzled secretary who posts the sign "I have only two speeds, and if this one isn’t fast enough then I’m sure you’re not going to like my other." Or the somewhat scattered boss whose messy desk is complimented with a note that says, "A Creative Mess is better than Tidy Idleness." The message is clear, yet the communication is done in a light and, therefore, less stressful way. The secretary’s sign pokes fun at the situation, and the boss’s note pokes some fun at himself.
3. Humor Builds Relationships
The development of staff cohesion and a sense of team effort in the workplace can be effectively facilitated by the use of humor. Bulletin boards, electronic mail, intra-office memos, voice mail, etc. all offer mediums through which we can share humor with co-workers. Office jokes taking the seriousness of work lightly provide us with the opportunity to become more connected with others.
Fun’N'Love
Fun’N'Love
| By Milan Kovacevic Published: 10/9/2008 |
Latest Bussiness Humor Funnies
Reading Business Humor Each Day Relieves Stress.
Motivation - OfficeArrow - Funny Business: Humor in the Workplace
It turns out that laughter might just be the best medicine when it comes to the health of your bu… Read more…
Business humor ~ Patience with your apprentice
An ageing blacksmith realized he soon needed to retire so he picked out a strong young man to become… Read more…
Friday business humor: Stop office lunch theft with gross sandwich …
Friday business humor: Stop office lunch theft with gross sandwich bags. September 19, 2008 �… Read more…
Humorous Office Politics