The Homa Files

Excerpted from Fast Company, “Who Do You Love”, Dec. 19, 2007

Juan Valdez … the fictional coffee-growing icon … has been featured in ads for decades, helping establish “100% Colombian coffee” as a global brand.

Juan’s appeal: humble but uncompromising, dedicated to the hard work of raising coffee by hand. “Juan Valdez taps into a fundamental human truth … that the things we savor the most are the hardest earned.” People emotionally connect with Juan because he seems authentic, and authenticity is a priceless commodity.

In an increasingly shiny, fabricated world of spun messages and concocted experiences … “Authenticity is the benchmark against which all brands are now judged. ”

Overloaded by sales pitches, consumers are gravitating toward brands that they sense are true and genuine. Hunger for the authentic is all around us. You can see it in the way millions are drawn to mission-driven products like organic foods.

Playing the authenticity game in a sophisticated way has become a requirement for every marketer, because the opposite of real isn’t fake–it’s cynicism. When a brand asserts authenticity in a clumsy way, it quickly breeds distrust or, at the very least, disinterest.

Each brand must build its own primary source code for the authentic. Still, there are some larger lessons (and pitfalls) that anyone charged with overseeing a brand would be wise to consider.

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What does it take to be authentic?

It is a brand’s values — the emotional connection it makes — that truly define its realism.

A strong point of view. Authenticity emerges from “people with a deep passion for what they are doing.” So Martha Stewart is perceived to be authentic in large part because her ambitious recipes for Perfect White Cake and Chocolate-Strawberry Heart-Shaped Ice-Cream Sandwiches stand in the face of a world where food is mass-produced and preparation for the average dinner is measured by the number of minutes it takes to microwave the thing.

Serving a larger purpose. Every brand is governed by an ulterior motive: to sell something. But if a brand can convincingly argue that its profit-making is only a by-product of a larger purpose, authenticity sets in. “Just as there are purpose-driven lives … there are purpose-driven brands.” (Think Whole Foods)  “When a brand changes its story to better capture its customers’ dollars, it’s basically a poser … and people sense that right away.”

Integrity. Authenticity comes to a brand that is what it says it is. In other words, “the story that the brand tells through its actions aligns with the story it tells through its communications,” posts about Wal-Mart, the deception elicited a torrent of rebuke.

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How do you stay authentic even as you get big?

Ubiquity might not be toxic to authenticity, but it certainly dilutes it. When a brand spreads far beyond its home turf, its branches almost invariably (though not inevitably) weaken.

No business has confronted this challenge more urgently than Starbucks. As chairman Howard Schultz lamented to upper management in a bluntly worded missive on Valentine’s Day, the company’s rapid growth has “led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience,” and the company’s stores “no longer have the soul of the past.” .”

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Can you be authentic when you’re trying to be authentic?

Authenticity is necessary, but it cannot be compelled. Coerced by corporate fiat, their “warmth” can wear out its welcome and feel contrived. 

And therein lies an authentic paradox: A brand doesn’t feel real when it overtly tries to make itself real. To the hypertargeted consumer, baldly billboarding a brand’s message smacks of insincerity.

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Can you be cool and still be authentic?

“Fortress brands” are deeply rooted in their heritage and values, they are inflexible, unmovable, and ultimately stuck in time. “That’s the problem with a dogmatic, static brand … the competition will outflank it, and the world will pass it by.”

Levi’s, for one, is a brand that appears to have slipped into the fortress category. The king of denim, whose founder stitched and riveted the world’s first pair of jeans in 1873, has lately missed out on the fast-changing trends of an industry that it created.

To maintain its integrity, a brand must remain true to its values. And yet, to be relevant–or cool–a brand must be as dynamic as change itself. An authentic brand reconciles those two conflicting impulses, finding ways to be original within the context of its history.

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Full article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/115/features-who-do-you-love.html

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