Carthago delenda est

What you say is not always as important as how you look saying it.

This is an extract from last week's IMTW.

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Issue № 98 | London, Sunday 19 May 2024

Read on to learn why:

① People may disregard what you say based on what you look like.

② ‘What looks good on camera’ is easier to convey than ‘what looks good’.

③ Too big to fail may be a thing but so is too big to retire.

④ There’s an AI arms race going on. And those don’t tend to end well.

⑤ Finfluencers’ high influence and low insight is a recipe for disaster.

⑥ There’s often a lag between our self-perception and how others view us.

⑦ Optimism is returning to Europe’s fintech sector.

What's new

Mark Zuckerberg has had a makeover but is it a midlife crisis or a carefully crafted rebrand? TechCrunch speculates.

In short:

• “Zuckerberg’s sudden shift in style is noticeable — for about 13 years, he’s worn the same gray shirt and jeans in most public appearances, because, of course, he is focusing on such large issues beyond the comprehension of us laypeople, who are not as rich as he is, because we just spend too much time getting dressed. In April, when Zuckerberg posted an Instagram reel about updates to the Meta AI assistant, onlookers honed in on Zuckerberg’s frat boy-esque chain, rather than the intricacies of the Llama 3 model. Someone altered a photo of Zuckerberg’s video and added a beard to his face, and it went viral, because he looked surprisingly good!”
• “‘Personal style is a communication tool,’ Amber Venz Box, the fashion blogger-turned-founder of the shopping platform LTK, told TechCrunch. ‘We have spoken and written communication, we have body language, and we have ‘drip’ — our appearance does communicate a lot about us and influences the way people feel about us’.”
• “This is not the same man we saw looking ghostly and baggy-eyed as he testified before Congress over Facebook’s potential to undermine the electoral process.”

Why it matters

There is no doubt in my mind that what we’re seeing here is a rebrand, not a midlife crisis. Zuckerberg is nothing if not astute with a long-term outlook (he doesn’t need to read ⑥ below). Indeed, as the TechCrunch piece observes, Zuckerberg has always understood that he can’t take Meta’s dominance for granted, nor can he get complacent about his place in the company. (I enjoyed the anecdote about how, when the company first set up shop in Menlo Park, it kept the entrance sign from Sun Microsystems, the lot’s previous tenant. Zuckerberg just had them turn the sign around and slapped the Facebook ‘thumbs-up’ on it, intentionally leaving the Sun logo visible.)

So, this story matters because it illustrates the importance of personal image. Zuckerberg’s outfit choices may seem frivolous, but they impact how the public perceives him and Meta. That’s something any senior leader should take seriously, especially if you’re in the media’s glare for any reason - and nowadays, which finance or tech leader can discount that possibility?

① Whether you like it or not, whether it’s fair or not, people form opinions about you based on what you look like. And they do so almost instantly and certainly long before they’ve heard what you have to say - if indeed they ever do listen to you, your appearance may discredit you enough to prevent people hearing you.

What to do about it

Take action

Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with leaders who understood that how they present has a huge impact on how people hear them. I fondly recall the banker who used to ask me every time before taking to the stage, “how’s the tie?”. We both understood that what he meant was “is my Hermès’ knot properly dimpled?” Sometime it was, sometimes it wasn’t. Always, I’d tell him the truth. Most people don’t appreciate sartorial details like that. Most people don’t notice the details.

So, if you’re the leader intent on presenting as well as you possible can, hire people you trust then trust their judgement.

② If you’re advising leaders about their appearance, you have a harder job ahead of you. If you’re lucky enough to have a boss who understands why tying your tie correctly matters, count your chickens. The bigger challenge is when you have one who doesn’t. Spend time earning their trust. Be as objective as you can while framing your advice in terms of ‘what looks good on camera’ or ‘on stage’. The notion that somehow a camera or a stage impose rules upon us that don’t apply in normal life is one of marketing people’s great deceit. It’s cover that allows us to doll out sartorial tips to our spokespeople under the guise of specialist comms advice. Take the cover.

Get help

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To learn why:

③ Too big to fail may be a thing but so is too big to retire.

④ There’s an AI arms race going on. And those don’t tend to end well.

⑤ Finfluencers’ high influence and low insight is a recipe for disaster.

⑥ There’s often a lag between our self-perception and how others view us.

⑦ Optimism is returning to Europe’s fintech sector.

Visit InMarketing This Week for the rest of this issue >

About

Written for senior leadership teams in finance and technology, InMarketing This Week is a showcase for news likely to impact you - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it. It’s published every Sunday at six to give you a head start on the week. Read extracts?here, or subscribe to?have each full issue delivered straight to your inbox, before it's available anywhere else.