insurgent49
  updated weekly
 home - contribute - donate -  message board - events - links - contact us - archive
February 2, 2007
The Tao of Waitressing
by Lindsay Luckey, insurgent49

     What’s In a Brand?

     I recently had some cards made for myself.  Necessary?  No.  Practical?  Maybe…  Handy?  Yes.  Self-indulgent? Definitely.  I found that I’d been running into more and more occasions where I wanted to share some bit of information with people: a way to contact me, the place where people can find my writing, or a useful website, store etc.  I’d usually end up scrawling the info on an old receipt, a coaster, paper towel or some other piece of trash. 

     I also saw that when faced with a similar desire to write down information, my corporate or desk job friends simply whip out one of their business cards.  So they give me a professional business card with their name and contact information and I give them a matchbook from Darwin’s with beer stains on it.  The message is the same and still has value to both parties involved.  But mine is more likely to not be taken seriously … and very likely forgotten about completely and thrown away.  But when someone gives me a business card, I save it.  Wallets are even made with a place to keep them.

     So I thought, why does your message automatically have a little more credibility than mine?  I’m not working in professions that warrant cards made by employers.  So I want something that represents me and can be as versatile as the uses I intend it for.  Something I would feel comfortable giving to friends, potential employers and people I meet along the way.  Something that’s a part of me.  So people remember me and my message.  Like a brand. 

     In Japan, the exchanging of meishi, or business cards is an important tradition.  As with many things in Japanese culture, it may seem overly elaborate and a pain in the ass to people not familiar with it. One presents the card with both hands, the other receives the card with both hands, both bowing slightly.  They study each other’s card and leave them neatly on the table for the entirety of the meeting or are placed in special card carrier.  Business cards are treated as an object to respect because they are seen as an extension of the person whose card it is. 

     The vehicle through which messages are delivered is important to how they are taken.  Like when I go to Nordstrom’s and my hair is unwashed, I’m not wearing makeup and have an old college sweatshirt and sweatpants on, I have just as much money and am the same person as when I’m “put together” and wearing nice shoes and jewelry and perfume.  But I have to interrupt conversations and “bother” the salespeople to get service when I’m the grungy person.   When I’m the put together person, I have to tell multiple salespeople “I’m just looking”.   They take me more seriously.

     So I made a card that tries to convey me.  It’s imperfect but I can give a wide audience a little bit of a feeling of what I’m like and what I’m about. 

     Yesterday was the grand unveiling of the Anchorage Big Wild Life brand.  While listening to the architects of the brand speak about what influenced their work, I could relate to a lot of what they were saying.  I could see nods and smiles around the room from the anxiously awaiting crowd as the speakers listed the many positive aspects about living and working in Anchorage.  What we want to share with visitors and why we live here. 

     But I’ll have to admit, when the punch line came, “Big Wild Life”, I felt a bit disappointed.  I think a lot of people did.  But a brand is more than those words.  We’re all wild about anchorage and know that life in Anchorage is more than a big wild life but we needed a better, sharper, updated picture so that we’ll be taken seriously.  I don’t foresee my friends using this language but when we talk about why we live here, but the ideas that were behind the brand are there in our conversations. 

     So if Anchorage needed to put on some perfume and high heels and give a card out to be taken more seriously, then I support it. 







     Lindsay Luckey is a waitress and aspiring Renaissance woman. She lives and works in undisclosed locations in downtown Anchorage, and can be reached at lindsay@insurgent49.com.

     'The Tao of waitressing' appears on insurgent49.com every Friday.
- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Rank and File
by Nova Stubbs

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford


The Tao
of Waitressing
by Lindsay Luckey







Copyright 2005 Insurgent Media. All Rights Reserved.
in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.