Why Is Brand Authenticity Crucial to Winning Customers?
“Branding is a set of techniques designed to generate cultural relevance and brands are successful when they break through and gather traction in society.
But the modern customer is smart, tech-savvy and research-oriented and they will constantly observe you, even when the spotlight is off. In other words, if your brand values are not authentic and a real part of your business, the consumer will eventually see through the smoke and mirrors that you have tried to create.
Back in the day, brands could sponsor TV programs or create adverts in their breaks aimed at their target market – and consumers generally believed what they were told.
Digital technologies have now created potent social networks and the digital crowds that have grown from them serve as very effective and prolific innovators of culture – a phenomenon known as Crowdculture.
Crowdculture changes the rules of branding and shows us which techniques work and which do not. These rules also
prove that transparency and authenticity, rather than the purchase of ‘fame’, are what consumers crave, along with consistency of messaging.
Equally as important is to remain true to business values and to be honest – otherwise customers will quickly and easily find brands in which they can place their trust.
This applies not only to the product but also employee benefits, working conditions and the whole the supply chain. One only has to look back to the time when some brands were exploiting child labour to see the effects of marketing which is far from transparent.
