I'm On The Train!

We've all heard that cellphone cry of the twenty first century and the jokes that go along with it. We've also heard the stories about people revealing personal financial or romantic secrets without thinking, but I experienced a new spin on it today.

The woman in question did nothing productive on the hour-long midday journey but stare out the train window. Nothing except take two calls from assistants. At first I was bemused as she blithely reeled off international and domestic travel plans for the coming weeks and stated her needs in way of cars to be arranged for the day and how she might as well stay overnight in London because she had meetings the following day. I questioned the cost of arranging all this at the last minute, but accepted that this is sometimes unavoidable.

And then her conversation revealed that she worked in the public sector. She was being profligate with tax revenues! And then she revealed that she worked for a charity! She was being profligate with charitable donations! Now I'm sure she is a highly dedicated worker with truly altruistic motivations, but how had she marketed herself to me, albeit inadvertantly. Well, my attitude to organised charity was damaged and, had I divined her specific charity, it would never have got a penny from me.

We are all marketers and we are always marketing because we never know who is in ear and eyeshot.