Pride Isn't Always A Sin

If you don’t take pride in your brand, who will?

That thought’s been on my mind a number of years now. It’s a perspective I’ve shared with clients when talking about the way they present themselves through logo design, packaging, advertising, collateral … anything and everything visual.

People, after all, shop with their eyes.

I’ve been saying that for a while, too. The first time it came up, I was looking at tourism brochures. Which are supposed to be tools for helping prospective visitors decide where to spend their precious money and even more precious time.

Yes, collateral is still a thing in the tourism industry; next time you visit a highway rest stop, you’ll likely find a display of brochures, pamphlets and rack cards. A good piece of collateral can be a useful tool for getting a destination in front of someone who might otherwise not consider it.

Among the brochures I was looking at, much of the photography was, in a word, bad. It did nothing to wrap the destinations in a sense of importance or value or quality. The challenge is, given equivalent destinations, the brochure that looks better has a competitive advantage. Brands that present themselves as if they, their products and the people who buy them are special have an edge over brands that don’t. They’re noticed more; they’re liked better; they tend to have higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

I’m a huge Apple fan. Few brands bring the same attention to presentation that Apple does, from software to hardware to packaging to, well, literally everything.

Long ago, I used to have both Macs and PCs (back then, there was still a work reason to have a PC). But I bought my last PC back in the 00s. Truth is, it didn’t look particularly good, certainly wasn’t packaged well and didn’t work nearly as well as my Macs did. That laptop gave me plenty of reasons to once and for all walk away from the PC platform.

I could sum up the difference between that last PC and any of my Macs just by pointing to the power chargers. The Macs’ are simple and elegant, an extension of the computer and the brand; the PC’s was just an ugly, cumbersome brick.

A few years ago, I bought myself a Leica Q2 camera. I’m not a particularly good photographer, but I do enjoy taking pictures (if you take enough, sooner or later some are bound to come out okay). And I wanted to get a really great point-and-shoot camera. The Q2 got on my radar. They aren’t cheap; but I bought one.

The unboxing was a joy.

The packaging was impressive. The presentation of the camera in the box was like a piece of jewelry. The camera itself felt … “crafted” is the word, like a piece of art you can take photos with.

And the photos are exceptional (no thanks to me). Add it up and you could tell one thing: The people of Leica love being the people of Leica. They’re proud of Leica. In a good way. They have the good kind of pride.

Yes, there is a good kind of pride. And, yes, pride has long been considered one of the seven deadly sins. Up there with gluttony, sloth and wrath. The difference here is earned pride rather than arrogance, pride that inspires good work rather than pride that makes excuses for shoddy work, pride that lifts everyone up rather than pride that talks down to some.

That’s the good kind of pride … pride that shows respect for the customer.

This topic – the importance of pride in your brand – thrust itself back into my thoughts a few weeks ago.

I was wandering through the home section of Neiman Marcus and happened across a demitasse cup and saucer set that caught my eye. Now I don’t like coffee, but I do like espresso (in the same way that I don’t like beer but do like whiskey). One of the things I like about espresso is the accoutrements … the little cups and saucers, the little spoons, sugar cubes, lemon peels, biscotti, maybe a sambuca rinse to get that last bit of espresso. It’s fun, immersive and seriously ritualistic. I’m always on the lookout for something that adds to the experience.

These cups and saucers were, to my eye, lovely. My first thought was, “These would look awesome on my breakfast table.”

I didn’t buy them that day; my mission was a birthday present for a friend. But, a few days later, I ordered two sets of the cups and saucers. They were too lovely to pass up. And, surprisingly, not expensive.

Which is an important part of the story. These were not costly pieces of porcelain.

But when they arrived, it would be easy to think they were.

The cups and saucers are from a designer named Michael Aram. His company makes housewares, home décor, jewelry, much of it reasonably priced. The demitasse cups and saucers are part of a line designed around the fruit and leaves of the pomegranate. As I said, they’re lovely, absolutely lovely. One might describe them as wistful in their beauty.

And they do look awesome on my breakfast table.

But what made them seem so much more expensive than they actually were was the presentation.

Each set of four cups and saucers came in a two piece box. The cardboard was sturdy, the surface of the lid textured, the name of the brand and the logo embossed in foil on top. The cups and saucers were nested snugly in a framework crafted to both protect and showcase the merchandise. There was a little card that gave background on the product.

When I get something for my house, I like to call it a gift for me. This actually did feel like a gift for me. Opening the package was delightful.

And here’s the kicker: I said these were not expensive. What they cost for a set of four cups and four saucers was …

Seventy dollars.

I can assure you, in the world of artful ceramic ware, that’s a steal.

What struck me was that the folks at Michael Aram take so much pride in what they design, craft, produce and sell – and in the Michael Aram brand – even an eight-piece cup-and-saucer set that retails for 70 bucks is worth packaging and presenting as if it cost multiples of what I paid. They brought no less love for the goods they sell than the folks at Apple or Leica.

The day those cups arrived at my house, Michael Aram, his team, his company and his brand made a fan for life.

On the other hand, about a year earlier, I had ordered an alpaca throw – definitely not inexpensive – as a gift. We’ll leave the name of that company out of the story. When the throw arrived, the presentation couldn’t have been any more perfunctory. It came inside a clear plastic bag packaged inside a not-clear plastic bag. And that was it. They didn’t make a fan for life.

So what’s the lesson? Simple: Pride isn’t always a sin.

Not the good kind of pride, where you take satisfaction in the work you do and the brand you’ve built. The good kind of pride makes you want to showcase your wares in a way that lets others know you’re thrilled to be sharing your work with them. It’s a way of showing respect for your customers. And signaling to them that what they bought from you is worthy of them, their time, their money … and their love.

More companies, more brands, more people who make decisions about companies and brands would benefit from making sure the good kind of pride is part of their branding, their packaging, their marketing, their communication, their everything.

People want to love the brands they bring into their homes and lives. They want to feel pride for what they’ve purchased. And that sense of pride in what they buy is greater when the people doing the selling show that they take pride in what they do.

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