Hunting is a brand. And it is being mis-managed.

For all the good that we claim and do as hunters, we are risking the future value and acceptance of hunting by non-hunting “gate keepers”. Those who would limit our freedoms and possibilities through governmental regulation and social disapproval have power because we have given it to them.

How?

For one thing, social media has provided a platform for sensationalizing hunting with hype, bravado, and performative boasting. Video clips of kill shots, for example, do little more than to project killing and polarize anti-hunting sentiments against us.

Sharing hunting experiences and promoting hunting services this way is scaling into a practiced norm. And very often, the offenders are companies in the trade and less so hunters themselves. However, for many, including more hunters than one imagines, it removes the sense of reverence and achievement of the hunting craft.

The hunting community understands the context of sharing trophy pictures and videos; these visual expressions signify real life in the field. But when they are broadcast indiscriminately to a massive, uninformed audience using a tone filled with yahoo shock value, we diminish ourselves and hunting as a noble endeavor.

Think this is an exaggeration or plain wrong? Just plot the curve of social acceptance over 50 years among all age groups and look where we stand. On our heels defending hunting with no unified and defensible talk track or set of logics.

In a broader context, the largest and most influential hunting organizations we belong to mainly exist in their silos of interest. Sheep, elk, pheasants, ducks, awards – all of the organizations do good things. But the specific mission to preserve hunting, which is the core enabler for preserving any category of species, is diluted. We lack the critical mass of market voice and funding to uphold hunting.

If hunting were treated as a brand, hunting organizations would de-silo-ize part of their mission and budgets and then unite with all other organizations to build the image of hunting. A brand is the desired identity and set of expectations that live in the mind of an audience. A brand is created by the consistent actions, values, and experiences of a company, group, or product. It is the story a house tells about itself — and the story the world tells back. It is the aura that forms when identity, promise, and performance align so consistently that the name becomes a symbol of value.

We have work to do. Beliefs are powerful. They’re personal. They can have a significant impact on the way we engage with ourselves and others. But results are universal and concrete, and no matter how much we’d like them to go away, there they are.

We need to shift from personal heroics to engineered performance of reputation management. Winning depends on whether we understand the problem and threat enough to form a better vison and work together on a higher level. If we align around the threat few want to discuss, we can imagine, deliver, and run a more secure future.