Recently, we saw a job posting for a yoga clothing retailer titled "Community Guru." The description said the employee's duties would be essentially to build brand awareness, network, and connect people to their stores to drive retail.
Outside the walls of this particular company, we generally call that role a "Brand Manager." So why did this company buck the standard nomenclature (while still hewing to the standard job description) and call this role "Guru"? What's in a name, indeed?
If we go by the fairly standard definitions of the word "Guru," it is clear that the word carries some weight. While there is a slangier use, context is key. If an accountant says that one of her colleagues is the firm's "tax guru," then it is reasonably unlikely that you are going to get spiritual guidance along with advice on your deductions. But when a retailer specifically targets the yoga community -- a market that has a strong (if sometimes undefined) spiritual side -- what are they trying to say when they label their employee a guru?
Westerners also have, as Elizabeth Gilbert has noted, a "sketchy" relationship with the concept of the guru. After all, becoming a student of a guru often means surrendering your free will, partially or totally. Westerners, especially those of us from North America, are not very good at surrendering - especially to someone who looks an awful lot like another fallible human being. Marry that with some high-profile stories of self-proclaimed gurus being nothing more than charismatic hucksters, and I return to my original question: why this name for this role?
When you consider the question on a literal level, it seems like it may be unwise to cast an employee of a retailer as a influential spiritual sage who might - just might - be a sophisticated con artist. If you consider it in a more casual light as an attempt to make a linguistic bridge to the retailer's customers, it seems cheap and superficial. Think about it: if you were a Christian bookseller, would you rename your brand manager role "Brand Bishop"?
...and would you rename your CEO pope (sorry, I`m typing on an unfamiliar keyboard in Buenos Aires, and I cannot find my punctuation).
Posted by: Sharon Frost | July 08, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Brings to mind a quip one of my colleagues made when my employer was in commercial discussions with an Indian software supplier a while back. One of the Indian guys was introduced as "Guru".
"Is that his name or his job description?"
Posted by: Alan Little | July 08, 2009 at 12:59 PM
LOL! I have a strong feeling I know who the retailer is and I know some of these "gurus". To me it's a poor choice for the name.
Posted by: Chris | July 08, 2009 at 03:47 PM
I *love* (lovelove) the last two paragraphs. There is something so deeply ridiculous in this. How do you manage a brand when you have to introduce yourself as the corporate guru? "Please take me seriously while I whimsically refer to myself using a term borrowed from a religion I like to play at."
But then again, I'm becoming cynical.
Posted by: Kimberly | July 08, 2009 at 07:46 PM