Brand

I was sitting in a pitch a few weeks ago. A pitch is, for those who are unaware, an opportunity to go in front of a prospective client and let her/him know why (a) you want to work with them, and (b) you would be a good fit.

Our pitches are usually done with a team of three to six people from my agency and involve a Keynote presentation followed by a Q&A. My portion of the pitch is to outline our interactive process and some of our technical capabilities and philosophies... and then to participate in general discussion as appropriate afterwards.

So I was sitting in a pitch a few weeks ago. It was for the redesign of an existing site, and there was a lot of potential to improve it, and a key differentiator our agency makes is that we consider brand to be just as important as technology.

"Brand" can mean many things to many people, and this is not intended to be an occupational exploration, so I'll keep it simple and say that brand generally means how an entity is perceived and what distinguishes it from other entities.

As part of the Q&A, the potential client asked our team what, based on the existing Web site, we thought their brand was. A coworker answered and then I chimed in, saying something like, "Busy. Which is both good and bad. Good in that there is a lot of activity and energy, but bad insofar as it appears to be inefficient and a bit disorganized."

In life, I've come to know that anytime I open my mouth I might be making a mistake. I remember mistakes I made with friends, with women, and even in law school oh, so long ago. I am hopefully coming to terms with this potential for error and I'm learning to assert things I am comfortable with and which I can defend.

Even with the knowledge that I was stating something I could defend and that I was comfortable with--and knowing that the potential client was unhappy with the current site they had--I was still a bit worried that they were going to take it the wrong way.

After all, brand is very personal. Asking someone about your brand is like asking someone about how they like your hair: whether you spend a lot of time and money on it or not, there's the chance that someone can hurt your feelings.

Brands extend beyond corporate--and even professional--matters, after all. We all have a way that we are perceived by our friends and family and people on the bus.

It's rare that I ask someone about my brand, and it's almost as uncommon as having unsolicited observations offered up about me (other than the rather common ones of, "Are you gay?" and "You look like someone...")

The very night that I gave my "busy" comment, I was given an unsolicited opinion that stymied me. The location was the men's restroom at the Frontier Room. I was waiting behind a guy who was washing his hands in the sink. As he grabbed a paper towel and I washed my hands, we had this exchange:

Him: You look...
Me (thinking, "Uh, oh... do I look gay or 'like someone'?"): Yeah?
Him: You look like you should be in a band.
Me: Oh, yeah?
Him: Yeah, like a band that makes really cool music.

That, my friends, is a compliment. Whether I dressed to look like I am in a band (which I did not and I am not) or not, that he added the "really cool music" part without any apparent irony (or homosexual overtones) means that he had a positive view of me.

He liked my brand.

And yet... what did I do? I got flummoxed. I should have (as attractive women around the world have become used to doing) said, simply, "Why, thank you!", but, instead, I thought, "That's an odd comment... at least it's not the worst thing he could have said."

And we had this second exchange:

Me: I guess that's pretty good, right?
Him: Yeah.
Me: I mean, it's better than you saying I look like an asshole, right?
Him: Are you calling me an asshole?

Ugh. I apologized and said I was not.

I think that maybe I should be as willing to accept input about my brand as I want potential clients to be, huh?