Authenticity is the key in the noisy marketplace we are living in today. Think about successful brands like Nike, Disney, Dove, and Coca-Cola. What’s the common thread amongst them? They are authentic! They practice what they preach and communicate their values consistently in everything they say and do.
Defining Brand Authenticity
Brand authenticity refers to how aligned a brand’s values, behavior, and products are to its messaging and marketing actions, according to the consumer. Typically, authentic brands are characterized by transparency, consistency and genuineness, which leads to customer loyalty and retention.
Authenticity is considered the core of a brand positioning and identity. Many businesses turn to branding agencies to build a strong identity or go through a rebranding process.
The Significance of Brand Authenticity
From building loyal customers to creating a positive brand reputation, brand authenticity plays a critical role in successful companies. • Consumers are looking for trustworthiness in the brands they support. According to Edelman’s 2023 research, 71% of respondents say trust in the brands they support is more critical than ever before. Instead of pushing sales, brands should focus on building trust through storytelling and other initiatives. • Specific generations, like Gen Z, are more likely than others to prioritize trust and authenticity. According to Edelman, 79% of Gen Z consumers say it’s more important to trust the brands they support than in the past. This generation wants to align its money with its values, so encourage your audience to invest in you by taking authentic positions.
The Four Pillars of Brand Authenticity
Brand authenticity is more than just appearing genuine on social media or occasionally issuing a public statement about the brand’s values. The most authentic brands leverage all four components of perceived brand authenticity (PBA).
1. Continuity
Continuity starts with the brand’s mission, values, and original principles. As the business matures, it should deliver on those values and mission consistently. Any future business decisions should honor the brand’s mission in the long term and ensure that the company’s story reflects its original beginnings. It’s also about keeping the brand’s voice, visual identity and tone consistent everywhere it’s presented. This includes everything from newsletters and social media profiles to customer service channels and products or services offered over time.
2. Credibility
Every brand aims to establish trust and credibility among their target audience to develop genuine relationship and brand loyalty. Credibility may be achieved in several ways. A brand may establish trust by creating honest and open communication about the business and its policies; by explaining the product in detail, its features and benefits; by owning up mistakes and not pointing fingers on other people or circumstances; and by using customer complaints and feedback to initiate and implement changes and additional services. These are just a few of the many ways brands can earn the trust and confidence of their customers.
3. Integrity
Customers want to trust in a brand and businesses that display integrity. This means that the business takes responsibility for its products, services and actions and values customer satisfaction above all else. While the ideal is to never disappoint a customer, dissatisfaction will sometimes occur. How they respond to these situations is vital.
Communication - customers need to know if there is a possible conflict of interest or bias on the part of the business. Quality control procedures need to be in place to ensure that products or services meet customer expectations and if this is not always possible, they need to be made aware of this. Customer feedback and concerns need to be acknowledged swiftly and with empathy.
4. Symbolism
Symbolism encompasses a brand's visual identity, including its logo and color scheme. More broadly, it reflects the brand's role in customers' lives or society at large.
Symbolism allows brands to connect more deeply with consumers, making them part of the brand's values and beliefs. This typically leads to increased brand loyalty and a stronger brand reputation.
To understand symbolism, consider brands and logos that feature prominently in our daily lives. For example, Apple's logo reminds us of our devices — MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches — which help us gain knowledge, connect with others, and feel part of the digital ecosystem.
Five Steps to Building an Authentic Brand
Building an authentic brand takes time, but with the right strategies and intentional efforts, brands can work toward authenticity by following these steps.
1. Anchor Your Brand in Your Mission and Values
Authentic brands know their identity, their values, and how to prioritize those values. The first step in becoming an authentic brand is to define its mission, values, and purpose, leaving no room for ambiguity.
For example, at G2, the organization's core values are encapsulated in the PEAK acronym (Performance, Entrepreneurship, Authenticity, and Kindness). PEAK guides the daily efforts of G2 team members, and employees can receive company awards for embodying these values.
A firm grounding in mission and values is key to lasting brand authenticity.
As for the great brands, they know themselves, they know what they stand for, and they know where the values are. The first area of preparation is to ensure that it is clear and precise on what it wants to be, or rather, wants to do, as an authentic brand. For instance at G2, the core values of the organization include its acronym PEAK meaning Performance, Entrepreneurship, Authenticity, and Kindness. Despite the fact that PEAK is an internal tool, it directs the activities of G2 team members on a daily basis, and there is a possibility for employees to be rewarded by the company for reflecting these values. This is why it is important for organizations to establish the mission and values of a brand to ensure long-term credibility.
2. Craft Your Brand Story
Your brand story should be built on the foundation of your mission, values, and purpose.
First, Understand Your Target Audience
Identify your target audience and the problems your brand can solve for them.
Then, Write Your Brand Story for Your Target Audience
Once you've identified your target audience, you can create your brand story with this audience in mind. Answer these questions to help guide your storytelling:
- What is our company’s history?
- What are our company’s purpose, mission, and values?
- What products or services does our company provide, and how can we help our audience?
- Why should our audience care about our business and what we do?
- What sets us apart from our competitors?
Transparency and honesty lead to more authentic stories. Be consistent, follow your purpose, and let your brand’s personality shine through.
3. Ensure Consistency in Style and Messaging
A brand is not just a logo or a set of colors, typography, design, and the overall view; it is an experience. These aspects should have a direct relevance to the brand’s goal and ought to be appealing to the target group. It is important to be precise and detailed when documenting these elements in a style guide that will retain consistency.
Consistency establishes trust and helps establish a consistent brand story so every aspect of the business delivers the same message to a consumer at every touchpoint. Nike is also one of the best example of brand consistency; Nike’s tagline has been very minimalistic and effective – ‘Just Do It’ and the Nike logo is one of the simplest and most powerful logos in the world.
4. Use Storytelling to Deepen Connections
The current marketplace has numerous similar products and services to buyers, but the brand narratives can distinguish a brand. In fiction and in fact, people like stories that are provided with a structure, and detail that is interesting to follow.
They can tell stories about the creation of the brand, the obstacles they have encountered, and how the brand has impacted the lives of others. People engage in storytelling as a way of overcoming loneliness and to find something to do with the time spent on social network
5. Seek Feedback from Your Audience
When creating a brand story, make sure to get and analyze audience sentiment to ensure that it resonates with, as well as targets, the right audience. It makes the process consistent and always helps brands to be aware of their advantages and weaknesses in their brand narrative in case if they want to make changes. Another helpful strategy is associated with monitoring, which shows how the audience evaluates the brand, its objectives, and principles. Through it, you can discover who among your customers are brand advocates, the level of feedback, or even the level of satisfaction with the product. It informs the reader about how a brand tells its story in the most authentic manner that is possible.
Ready to Make the Jump?
It may look like it is easier to erect a fake brand but it may look like erecting an honest brand is even harder; but that is the best thing to do in the long run. Real brands have consumer loyalty, people prefer to spend their money on the particular brands and it also assists in providing the product a good image in the market. This is because when you have a true, genuine mission statement, then it is easier to remain consistent with your mission statement when you have place honesty as your greatest values; having the customer fully on your side is much easier.
This paper also shows that developing the real brand image can be another important activity towards the achievement of a positive brand image. If you wish to know how to create and sustain your brand equity, do read the next few passages below.
A brand is not only a logo: the sum of the graphical parameters, the sign, the colors, the fonts, the design and the appearance; a brand is a feeling. These aspects should be in some way or the other connected to the brand’s goal and in a way, should be appealing to the target group. They should be named with maximum precision and explained in detail because a style guide will be used to apply them coherently.
Another important notion is the notion of consistency that applies to the construction of the brand’s image and the harmonization of all the elements of the story to deliver one message to the consumer during all the stages of the interaction. Nike is perhaps one of the best examples for this model; Nike has had a slogan which is simple and very effective which is – ‘Just Do It’ and the Nike symbol is perhaps one among the simplest and most effective symbols in the world.
About Praveen Kumar
Digital Marketing Expert
