Are offbeat job titles hurting or helping your agency’s image?
July 20th, 2011 § 2 Comments
Have you ever received a business card that had someone’s name and in place of a generic job title contained something along the lines of, “Chief of all that is good and evil and made of marshmallows”? We’ve all seen it, and we’ve probably all been tempted to try out for ourselves (my most exotic title that I experimented with was “marketing person”. Wild, eh?). Sure, they’re fun and sometimes incite a guffaw, but what do these alternative names do as far as perception goes?
As entertaining as they can be internally, they do little to portray a credible, valuable image. By making light of something your customers, personally, may value in their own careers, they can feel like you’re not very serious. Sure, your brand may be based on a fun-loving attitude that job titles don’t seem to fit well within, but it’s important to find alternative ways to demonstrate your quirkiness that don’t impact your company’s perception.
Beyond the perception issues associated with offbeat job titles, it can just be downright confusing. In order for people to process the vast amount of information they receive any given day, they’re subconsciously looking for mental shortcuts so they don’t become overwhelmed with data. One of the most important shortcuts we create involve grouping people into understandable categories so we can access their information more readily when we need it, something your job title can assist with. By going against the grain in such an important area for most people’s understanding, it can do more harm than good. Sure, you might be thinking, “hey, if I can be remembered for having a different job title than everyone else, then I’m golden!” But it’s just not true. If you don’t position yourself in a way that fits nicely into something understandable for a potential client, you’ll get filed away in the, “I don’t know what they do” category, which doesn’t bode well for being remembered.
So before you forego the traditional job titles, think about how this affects your ability to be remembered for the right reasons. There are plenty of ways to stick out in your customers’ minds that don’t involve confusing them, and everyone else, about what the heck you actually do.
Now, there are ways to have a little fun with titles that don’t involve ruining their understandability such as creating silly/offbeat taglines that support your titles that maybe only appear on your website (Marketing Director “AKA Social Media Maven”) or mix 2 or 3 standard job title terminology with something memorable about your brand (“Chief Marketing Dog”).
Whichever you choose to do, it’s important to think beyond what you think about it and consider how it impacts your perception. Which, in the end, is what brand’s are based on.
Totally agree. I was mulling over this same discussion yesterday for a client project with their business category. We want to help them differentiate themselves from competitors (especially since they really *are* different), but there’s a fine line between creatively describing what you do and confusing people. Sometimes, it’s ok to take the simple route or (like you suggested) find a happy compromise.
Glad to hear it! Business categories have the exact same issues. Simplicity never hurts, but complicated or strange definitely can.