The Authentic Brand

THE PROBLEM

The marketplace is becoming more, not less, cluttered. Year on year, it’s harder and harder to stand out in a sea of marketing messages. AI has flooded the zone and brands struggle to keep their heads above water. Survival of the fittest has become survival of the “authentic.” I’m sure you’ve heard lately that “authenticity” is a critical component of your brand strategy, but what on earth does that mean? Whether it’s in social, digital, PR, whatever - it seems only “authentic” brands are poised for success.

How do you make a brand more authentic?

One of the great destroyers of authenticity is the disconnect between the marketing team, usually tasked with the role of “brand guardians,” and the wider organization where brand building is a critical function, but sadly under-resourced, under-managed and under-tracked.

This is a difficult problem to solve, but it’s a great cause to champion inside your organization. We must fight for a company culture that supports and builds the brand. Internal values must support the customer facing values embodied by the brand. How quickly sales can answer a customer request is just as crucial for success as the logo and brand colorways.

The fish stops rotting from the head

Everything proceeds from the initial sense of purpose in the organization: What is the point of our company, this business? Why do we actually come to work? A shared sense of purpose informs the vision, the mission, and ultimately forms the organization’s “brand.” In this definition, “brand” is the sum total of all feelings and associations held in the brain of every single person that engages with your organization in any way whatsoever. Building this brand is a slow, painstaking process that is only effective when messaging, behavior and relationships are consistent and repeatable. 

To be authentic – the initial sense of purpose of the organization MUST be to somehow improve the lives of the customers. It can’t be anything else. The closest analog I can find to this is the sales relationship between a vendor and a customer.  A successful sale is beneficial to both seller and buyer. The buyer understands this. They want the product they want and they are willing to pay for it, understanding that the seller must make money. The vendor wants to sell their product and make money, understanding that the buyer is right to seek a fair price, and must maintain trust to ensure future sales beyond this initial encounter. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. This inter-human framework works as an analog for the relationship between a commercial organization and its customers. The customer knows they are being sold to – but they are willing to buy as long as there is trust that the selling organization has their interests at heart and is not going to rip them off. The secret sauce in all of this is the trust that must be built between seller and buyer, between commercial organization and consumer. That trust is built on the pedestal of authenticity. So when (say) your SAAS notifies of an increase in subscription price only in the small print of the annual renewal email – hoping the customer will not notice, then you are destroying trust and damaging your brand.  

Steps to authenticity

So far so abstract. What practical changes can we make to increase the authenticity in our brand?

Bold Values

As mentioned, everything comes from having solid values that are engineered to create a high-performing organization which expresses a well-rounded brand identity that resonates with consumers and promises to in some way improve their lives. If your values are weak and tend to be ignored by employees (See The Break Room) then put pressure on the C-suite to reformulate them in a more dynamic way with concrete language and real measurability. Patagonia is a great example of a company that makes money selling things, but is also trying to improve our environment. They practice what they preach: Their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign encouraged shoppers to buy less and helped build the authenticity of their brand.

Brand Congruence

Brand congruence is the alignment between the great promise your brand makes to the customer, and their actual experience. Think of the people we respect the most: They mean what they say and say what they mean. They back up their words with actions that match. You trust them. How many brands can we say that about? A brand congruence audit looks at the promise made to the consumer and compares it with research on your customer’s experience and then feeds back discrepancy data into process improvements and relevant structural changes. Sometimes it’s easy to fix, maybe even as simple as being upfront about the things you are doing and not trying to hide everything behind the brand “mask.” A good example of congruence is Trader Joe’s – every interaction with a cashier feels pleasant and informal, their signs are hand-written, their returns are easy and they offer free samples on a regular basis. All this builds authenticity and real, bottom-line-boosting brand loyalty.

Consistency

Consistency is one of the easiest ways to improve customer experience. Do we return inquiries from customers with the same responsiveness every time? Do we get back to our co-workers’ messages in the same timely fashion? Create metrics to track consistency and reward those who meet their targets. I recently read complaints of the variable quality of coffee at QSR chains (I think Tim Hortons was one particular offender mentioned.) Love or hate Starbucks, you have to admit they are incredibly consistent, with their product and their service. This builds trust and authenticity.

Transparency

Own your mistakes. Don’t be fake. If your social media is just jumping on trends with awkward, salesy product messaging, then you look like out-of-touch corporate shills. Show humility, show humanity, be yourselves. Or rather, be your brand’s self: The personality of your marketing communications must match the persona of the brand you have created. Check out Everlane and their “radical transparency.” By sharing the production costs of their clothing, and committing to ethical factories and processes, they have built a solid authentic brand.

Specificity

When telling brand stories, avoid generic abstract concepts. Be specific about people, places, names, issues and outcomes. Learn to use concrete language in your communications and avoid wooly, abstract concepts. Be like Patagonia who use stories of real climbers, surfers and activists in their marketing. Specificity resonates.

Humanity

OK – AI is taking over everything. Also, consumers don’t like it. The moment they smell AI in your messaging, you are cooked, and authenticity evaporates. If you must use AI in copy, edit it and blend it with human-written prose. Spend enough time on LinkedIn and you can spot the AI posts a mile off. Even the seemingly-human posts from people you know and respect have often been edited with AI, and I’m sorry to say, we can all tell. Don’t do it. Once people realize you are chatGPT-ing your way through everything, they can then safely ignore your message. Don’t be fooled by all the big-up responses in the comments, those are mostly bots or fake engagement. Remember when Zappos was new and all anyone could talk about was how good their customer service was? Real people solving your problem in a kind and attentive fashion. What a time to be alive! That’s the kind of humanity that builds authenticity.

Take a look at how your brand is being built – across your organization and from top to bottom. Think outside the marketing box and look at every expression of brand values in your business. Do an authenticity audit and you will find a refreshing new market of consumers willing to engage with you on a deeper, more productive level. You’ve got something to sell, they want to buy – but let’s make a better world while doing that.