Some time ago, I had the opportunity to meet the India head of a sports and casual apparel/footwear brand. They wanted to know more about my corporate workshop on personal branding for CXOs/senior leaders, and had reached out to me. We fixed up a meeting time and I went and met them.
I had a couple of other meetings that day, including a lunch meeting, so I completed all of them and headed to this meeting last.
As soon as I met the India head, I sensed something was wrong as the facial expression at the greeting was all wrong! I realized that the cause of that expression was the brand of t-shirt I was wearing – Under Armour!
I had not considered the need to avoid a supposed rival (there are many sports and casual apparel/footwear brands that operate in India, in any case) explicitly for this meeting, and instead wear a shirt, perhaps (a product they do not have in their portfolio).
The meeting started on a wrong note and soon was on the verge of getting canceled as I was told that this ‘attire’ I was in was both unexpected and distressing to the India head! I was also given to understand (later, by someone else in the media) that the India head had also initially refused to speak with a journalist who came wearing another rival brand for the interview and that interaction going very badly too, as context!
We continued to talk somehow, and it was thoroughly uncomfortable for me, though I had wanted to simply leave and stayed on only because I did not want to come across as being unprofessional. In hindsight, of course, I find it amusing 🙂
The workshop did not happen, of course; was it because of my wrong t-shirt or something else, I don’t know. But there are a couple of things I came to assimilate and reflect on, later.
1. I have been in agencies – PR and advertising, and have kowtowed to the idea of impressing a potential client during the first meeting or during the pitch by using products by that company. This includes avoiding to bring in to the meeting things that may be made by rival brands (like my smartphone/laptop, for another brand’s pitch). It was a question of both the compulsion to win the business and a team decision to adhere to those basic checks (what we call, in agency parlance, as hygiene checks).
2. There have also been many meetings where I/we have been seen using rival products (particularly in B2C client or potential client meetings) where the client or potential client took it gracefully and had a frank and confident discussion about why I/we considered those products and why not their product. I hold these leaders in a lot of respect.
3. In the case of my meeting for the workshop, I wasn’t in any particularly pressing compulsion to impress them through such superficial conformity or bother about hygiene checks of what to avoid. I wore what I liked and what I was comfortable in. I do not have t-shirts made by the brand I was meeting, but I did have footwear belonging to their brand. I was, however, wearing sneakers made by US Polo Association, and for some reason, that was not deemed an issue (was told so, specifically) – only Under Armour was!
Given how extraordinarily uncomfortable that meeting was, I replay it in my mind occasionally, as one of the more memorable meetings I have been in. I don’t necessarily blame the India head for the behavior – I understand that their brand is a top priority for them and it is probably natural they expect that level of conformity. And if I really (desperately) want their business (as in my agency days), I’d have perhaps worried a lot more of smaller details like these, even if it is not to impress (by wearing their brand), perhaps not to antagonize them (though one could argue about antagonizing someone simply by wearing something they think is a rival brand).
(On a parallel note, this could also be about the power equation. Consider why many Indians try to put on an accent or pronounce it as mobil, instead of mobile, for example, when speaking with American colleagues/clients. The side that makes more effort to be better understood and/or better liked probably has more to gain from the relationship, and goes the extra mile.)
At least in my case, I had something to gain by conforming, but the thought of refusing to speak with a journalist for the same reason of non-conformity with their brand during the meeting is perhaps taking things several notches higher.
Should brand owners take their brand that seriously where they expect everyone in their vicinity to visibly use their brands? And be upset with non-conformity? Can’t each person they come in touch with who doesn’t conform be seen as an opportunity to,
a. get direct feedback on why-not their brand?
b. convince them of the USPs or positives of their brand in a friendly way?
To some extent, this attitude perhaps extends to content marketing too. I always recommend content creators in brand teams to start with the assumption that their audiences do not specifically care either for their product or content and are not waiting for content from them. If you start from that point of humility, they could possibly work harder in earning the attention of a discerning, indifferent, or hard-to-please audience and the content would go through a lot more diligence and cross-questioning.