I am a new guy here. My business card says ‘Technology Copywriter’ yet the title ring just a little bell to me. I was hired to handle digital content of Nodeflux which they had close to none before. There were social media accounts but no one was specifically hired to secure the post. I was quite experienced in this field, and dare I that I successfully shaped the branding of my previous employer (corporate-wise and the CEO personally). Sometimes I guess my content was too polished that it leaves a fancy glossy appeal to the company itself, disconnected from the real piles of problem they swept under the rug. But, anyway, that could only add to the success story of what a branding could make.
My first concern at Nodeflux was to coin a specific terms to call the people. I proposed multiple names, but when I threw it on the forum, no one dig anything. They insist on something they call, ‘Smart Donkey’. Um, okay then.
I tried to explain to them that there’s no possible way a donkey would bear an identity of a company that wish to be taken seriously. You can see it in the sports team for example: bear, wolf, tiger, eagle, lion — those wild, majestic, powerful, strong, undomesticated animal to embody their identity as a force to reckon with. No one wants to associate their company with ducks, chicken, golden fish, or… donkey.
Speaking about donkey, donkey is associated with: stupidity, foolishness, dunce, mistakes, dimwit, ugh, I can’t find any single positive trait I could work on with the donkey concept as a corporate ID. I personally asked Meidy Fitranto, the CEO about the story behind Smart Donkeys, because not even the ‘smart’ claim before its name could convince me to work on donkeys.
Meidy said it begun when he and Faris (the CTO) were classmates in college. When it comes to group tasks, they always chose to work in pair with each other. Meidy admitted he and Faris wasn’t the brightest on the class: they procrastinate, lazy, hesitant to work or think hard, like donkeys. So most of the time, they would ‘tricked’ their smarter fellows for some lead to bite on, and they work their way out from there. Yet, somehow, they finish the tasks better than their brighter mates. It proved that, even though they’re donkeys, they are smart enough to outsmart the smartest of their class.
Based on what I saw, this message resonates very well with most of programmers or AI scientist in Nodeflux. They relate to the procrastination, laziness, hesitance of a donkey. I remember a quote from Bill Gates on the internet that says, ‘I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.’ Yet, people in Nodeflux, they‘re not stupid. And yes, it takes a certain level of intelligence to be the ‘efficient lazy’ like Bill Gates meant. Otherwise, you’ll just be the donkey who fall to the same hole. This is when the ‘smart’ play significant role to differentiate them from ‘regular’ donkeys.
Wow. Just wow.
I think there might be quite a chance to brand a company using donkey. Maybe since lion, bear, tiger, or any typical beast became too average, then it’s time to go take the highway: picking something that was very unlikely, then work up my way from there. Oh, Smart Donkeys, I’m another human you just outsmarted!
