For success today, you have to be real.

In a world where values are shifted, information is more available than ever, and your digital past follows you, your brand can’t afford to be anything but authentic. The more connected our world becomes, the more consumers crave something genuine. Experience is top-of-mind and expectations are high. People need to know that what they see, read, and hear is real.

Not only does that mean you have to live up to what you say, but this is where consistency in all aspects is vital. Every part of your brand (your products, mission, vision, values and brand execution) needs to feel connected and authentic.

From your website, to walking around your store or offices, unpacking your product, going to an event - if the experience doesn’t match your brand promise, your prospects, customers, and your team members will be come increasingly distrustful.

Not only is there a strong desire for consistency in your brand experience, how you behave, what you believe and what your brand stands for are increasingly important as well. Our interconnected world means that keeping what you do and believe separate from how you behave is a think of the past. Bad PR and social media can mean no more business for your business.

Authenticity in branding

With the above in mind, when building the foundations of your brand, it’s essential to ensure you’ve done the work to ensure it’s authentic. But what does that mean exactly?

Well, the Journal of Consumer Psychology defines perceived brand authenticity as: “the extent to which consumers perceive a brand to be faithful and true toward itself and its consumers, and to support consumers being true to themselves"

In short, brand authenticity means that what you do and say are a real and true reflection of the beliefs of your organization and brought to life by people who believe in them as well.

So, how do you find your truths and beliefs?

A brand is so much more than a logo. It’s really about the feeling consumers get when they encounter your brand in all its forms.

Branding, then, is the set of actions you take to create that feeling.

Branding is the process of giving a meaning to a specific organization, and their products and services by shaping an image and voice in consumers’ minds.

“Brands are essentially patterns of familiarity, meaning, fondness, and reassurance that exist in the minds of people.”— Tom Goodwin

Therefore the first step to find brand truth is to define who you are and what you stand for. Our brand workshops are the perfect tool for collaboratively working through this tough question with your leadership and your team and combining with key consumer insights. To get started, here are a few questions to consider:

• What do we offer beyond a product or service?

• What are the emotional drivers of our ideal consumer?

• How can we show up for them and help ease their fears?

• What sets us apart from our competition other than money?

Next, your brand mission and vision need to be lived out and communicated clearly across channels and teams.

Never forget that your brand is owned by your people. There is a huge amount of work to do internally. to ensure your culture reflects these beliefs and that your team is aligned on how to express it in the world. This won’t just magically happen through osmosis and time. But, rather, needs a process and design. There need to be regular rituals, metrics and rewards. These all need to be supported and empowered by the leadership of the organization.

Employee experiences all need to be considered the first line of defense to your brand authenticity. Onboarding, wellbeing, employer value propositions, meetings, and more all need to be thought through and aligned with your brand truths.

Once your internal team culture is living up to your authentic brand, you can put it out into the world via the usual channels - website, marketing materials, sales scripts, experiences. And it will be all the more true since the employees bringing it to life are already living it. It will flow from them with ease because they’ll have alignment on what it is, and be able to articulate it clearly and with genuine excitement.

How do you protect it?

Businesses need to design feedback loops. Internally and externally. Beyond the use of your products and services and revenue growth, ensure you are getting qualitative feedback as well. Measure emotion, feelings and perception. You’ll design and map the customer experience and be sure to track how customers are feeling about it at every step.

Simple. Listen.

There are some easy (and low-cost) ways to gain insights into customer attitudes. Social media and customer surveys are both great ways to ensure you’re delivering on your authentic brand promise. If you aren’t. Customers will be quick to let you know. They’re not afraid to share when something in their experience doesn’t measure up to your promises, and you’ll build brand loyalty just by asking for their feedback proactively. Showing you care about their opinion delivers on their expectation that you care.

Gaining these same insights about your employee’s thoughts and emotions is not quite as simple. You must spend some real time and thought on ensuring there are processes in place to gather feedback anonymously and that your leadership leads by example in sharing outcomes and changes to come. Employees need to feel it’s safe to share their honest feedback and then know that it’s been heard and will be acted upon (or not). Asking but not showing doesn’t do you any favors.

Once you have the processes in place to gather these insights, the gleaned information needs to be acted upon. It’s vital for businesses to continue to review themselves against their authentic brand story across all of the customer touchpoints and try to close any gaps between expectations and reality.

If you want to be trusted, Earn it with consistency.

How is your business doing with authenticity in your brand?

If you find you’re in need of help getting your team aligned around a common vision and mission and want a strategy for how to bring it to life, we would love to help. You can learn more about our brand consulting services here.