Marketing: Fun and Useful – try now!

As a marketing professional I am a fervent believer in the importance and power of brand names. Yet I have also found myself, at an instinctive level, being somewhat dismissive of job titles – the words that describe a role, and, in turn, the person in the role. Why dismissive? Well, I figured that many titles were static, formal window-dressing, and that people in organizations could decode what was really meant. Lately, I have changed my mind on this. Brands should stand for something and be clear in their communication to their audiences. It is easy, but lazy to label people with generic, commoditized job titles. But then this risks mis-understanding, or places a higher burden on the audience to decode. So, perhaps everyone should write their own job title, or at least a description – tagline if you like – of what they do that is important and different. This could be difficult, controversial and even risky. But it would force people to think about what they really do. What would this mean for me? My official job title is “Instructor” or worse, “Lecturer.” I dislike both of these terms. They are cold, mechanical and imply one-way communication. Whenever I am talking to someone and explaining what I do, I find myself saying, “but I don’t lecture….instead I do xyz.”  What is this “xyz?” What should be on my business card?

My conclusion: NICC.

N = Navigator   I = Interpretor  C = Coach   C = Cheerleader.

There! Feeling better, feeling proud, and communicating clearly about what I do as we march into 2012.