What's the Perception of Your Industry?
3 Mar
A few months ago, I wrote about the plumber’s reputation problem. Most professions — plumbers included — call to mind one characteristic or another in most minds: lazy, trustworthy, sleazy, hardworking. You get the drift.
David Mullen’s post about the PR profession got me thinking about this again. The topic came up a few weeks ago, too, in a conversation with Nathan Richie about public perceptions of DJs (Nathan’s a marketer, by the way).
Forget your brand for a minute — what trait do people attribute to your profession?
Here’s what I think comes to mind when some people think of these common professions:
- Lawyers = sleazy
- Salesmen = aggressive
- Mechanics = liars
- Artists = out of touch with reality
- PR = spinmeisters
- Politicians = corrupt
- Journalists = biased
- Truckers = filthy
- Contractors = late; never finish a job
Of course, these are just stereotypes. But in the PR business, perception truly is your unfortunate reality. Overcoming the stigma created by a few bad apples in your field can be tough.
What’s the perception of your profession?
I've been in association management for the past ten years and nobody knows what we really do, but that's a different story. However, I was a restaurant manager for ten years and that profession doesn't always have a great reputation. I was serious about my job — I was managing a business and responsible for many paychecks, that's serious. But the lack of professionalism that I saw in managers in other restaurants really bothered me. I encountered more mediocre and bad managers than good ones, and that's sad.
I felt the stigma when meeting people who didn't know me — what a fun job, they implied, must be like one big party all the time, anyone can do that. That's a tough perception to fight without going into all the details and challenges of running a business. Don't get me wrong, it's immensely satisfying too — nothing quite like it. But I believe that stigma is still out there to an extent — that it's not quite a serious job, or as we used to say a “real” job. How wrong that is.
I've been in association management for the past ten years and nobody knows what we really do, but that's a different story. However, I was a restaurant manager for ten years and that profession doesn't always have a great reputation. I was serious about my job — I was managing a business and responsible for many paychecks, that's serious. But the lack of professionalism that I saw in managers in other restaurants really bothered me. I encountered more mediocre and bad managers than good ones, and that's sad.
I felt the stigma when meeting people who didn't know me — what a fun job, they implied, must be like one big party all the time, anyone can do that. That's a tough perception to fight without going into all the details and challenges of running a business. Don't get me wrong, it's immensely satisfying too — nothing quite like it. But I believe that stigma is still out there to an extent — that it's not quite a serious job, or as we used to say, a “real” job. How wrong that is.
I am originally a creative writer = so a loner and misunderstood, darkened sole
I am also a designer – so a quirky, hippy, lover of all hipster tagalongs
And most recently I am a consultant = so I don't do anything
In summary that amounts to a misunderstood hippy that does nothing
I am originally a creative writer = so a loner and misunderstood, darkened sole
I am also a designer – so a quirky, hippy, lover of all hipster tagalongs
And most recently I am a consultant = so I don't do anything
In summary that amounts to a misunderstood hippy that does nothing
I am originally a creative writer = so a loner and misunderstood, darkened sole
I am also a designer – so a quirky, hippy, lover of all hipster tagalongs
And most recently I am a consultant = so I don't do anything
In summary that amounts to a misunderstood hippy that does nothing