Are you an authentic person? If so, you probably own yourself, live by your principles, and aren’t ashamed Kenya Email List to show who you are, even with your faults, aren’t you Well, we can also use these characteristics in marketing to talk about brands.
Personality and principles, aligned with communication with the market, build an authentic brand. If we think about the current context, in which communication takes place mainly through the internet, brands are exposed all the time and have several channels to show how authentic they are.
But, for a long time, the digital market did not know how to take advantage of this opportunity. Brands bombarded social media, blogs and YouTube channels with an immense volume of content.
In this unbridled production, brands lose quality and authenticity, because the contents do not connect to their values, purpose and personality.
So, content production in digital marketing needs to be committed to long-term brand building . So, let’s see now how online content can help build a truly authentic brand to gain strength in the marketplace.
What is an authentic brand
An authentic brand has a purpose and personality consistent with how it presents itself to the market . As an authentic person, he shows himself according to his essence, his values, his identity, including his vulnerabilities.
Valuing brand authenticity is a transformation for the market. If we think about the history of marketing, companies have always sought to maintain a perfect image of their brand to please everyone, with untouchable content and fear of any failure.
But brands are made by people . And people identify with people, with all their complexity and imperfections. So, when brands become human, they open the doors to authenticity and bringing consumers closer.
According to Philip Kotler, Marketing 3.0 marks the change in the perception of the consumer, who is no longer a target to be reached, but a human being with whom brands need to relate, on an equal footing.
And this consumer wants to relate to brands that are aligned with their values and their vision of the world. From there, brands need to get off the pedestal to be more human , with personality, purpose and values that earn the trust of this consumer, without fear of displeasing other audiences.
Difference between authenticity and transparency
Two concepts that get confused in branding are authenticity and transparency, but there are some subtle differences between them. Let’s explain now.
Transparency is about how much you reveal about your brand’s reality, without subterfuge, without deception. Authenticity, on the other hand, refers to the consistency with your essence behind your words and actions.
A brand can be transparent when sharing your company’s backstage, but it isn’t necessarily authentic. The most transparent fashion brands , for example, reveal their sustainability data, but this does not mean that they are sustainable and that their discourse is consistent with their actions .
On the other hand, an authentic brand is usually transparent because it’s not afraid to show its truths . Transparency is one of the ways to convey authenticity.
But that doesn’t mean she needs to open up all her data and show every minute of her social media routine. A brand doesn’t have to be an open book to be authentic.
In each channel and with each audience, she can build a different relationship and reveal different layers of her existence, as in any interpersonal relationship. And it’s not because we build different relationships that we’re less authentic.
What are the most authentic brands in the world and in Brazil
Between May and June 2017, the public relations agency Cohn & Wolfe interviewed 15,000 consumers in 15 countries to find out, in their view, which are the most authentic brands in the world.
The study was based on three attributes that weigh most on the perception of a brand’s authenticity: trustworthy, respectful and real . The survey came up with a list of the 100 most authentic brands , among the 1,400 that were selected. Below, we list the top 10 positions:
- Amazon;
- Apple;
- Microsoft;
- Google;
- PayPal;
- Adidas;
- Intel;
- Lego;
- BMW;
- HP.
Realize that many of these names are also among the most valuable brands in the world . We can assume, then, that building an authentic brand helps to strengthen its market value.
In the view of Brazilians, the list was like this:
- Apple;
- Google;
- Mercedes-Benz;
- The boticario;
- Microsoft;
- Adidas;
- Johnson&Johnson;
- Dell;
- Natura;
- Samsung.
In the view of Brazilians, it is interesting to notice the presence of two brands in the country that operate in the same field: O Boticário and Natura. Large companies in the cosmetics area have renewed their branding in recent years to value human beauty, real and diverse, not that idealized by the media.
Perhaps there is an explanation for the positive perception of brands. And it is probably no coincidence that O Boticário and Natura are also among the most remembered brands for the diversity in their advertisements.
They connected with an important purpose to the audience, conveyed that in their communication and gained recognition.
What are the advantages of having an authentic brand
Why should you define your brand essence and align it with your communication. Why find a purpose for your brand to be more authentic. What advantages would this bring. Let’s now understand the importance of having an authentic brand.
Awakens consumer identification
An authentic brand is more human . Just like a person, he has values, causes with which he engages, a personality with qualities and defects that awakens the identification of consumers. List Provider And people identify with imperfection, you know.
Science explains this with the pratfall effect : the attractiveness of admired people increases as they demonstrate their flaws.
A Zenith Opti media experiment also showed this trend: of people preferred the imperfect cookie in the figure below. Therefore, having an authentic brand, with its imperfections, engages.
