Brand Authenticity- How to do it well.

I have been banging on about Authenticity (amongst a throng of others) for a while now as being of the upmost importance to brands. Not only is Authenticity important because of the digitisation of media, or as I put it in an earlier post the fact that the deer now guns (if you don't believe me check out this Comcast example from the US, an oldie but a goodie!) BUT also because current consumers are savvier than their historical counterparts. Credit where credit is due, consumers these days are generally better at wading through the masses of marketing messages they get bombarded with on a daily basis. Look there is still a sucker born every day but on balance I think the general consensus is that we are a more informed, savvier bunch than in previous years.

So authenticity is important, but how do we do it well? I saw this one in a Springwise newsletter last week and thought it was one the best examples of brand authenticity I have ever seen. The brand is Icebreaker from New Zealand. They basically built their brand on the sheep's back. Outdoor apparel made from 100% pure Merino is their focus. Yes they're expensive but this is a quality not quantity approach to business. Their latest initiative is basically a clothing version of the Slow Food movement, where you can trace back the origins of your wool garment to the actual farm where the wool came from. They're calling it "BAACODE", cute name- Great idea.

The thing I liked most about this example was that it was nice idea that got me sucked me in at first, but the more I delved into the brand, the culture the people, the more excited I got. The quite lofty values they extol, they actually deliver on. Not only in the rhetoric and the nice fluffy stuff on their website but also in the way they conduct themselves with their business partners.

Compare this to, say, Commonwealth Bank, "determined to be different". A new position, a new ethos, and an expensive new advertising campaign, but is it authentic? A lot of media people have leapt at the chance to stick the boot into Commbank over the new position and the ad's (check out Singo's scathing response!). I don't want to just jump on the bandwagon of CBA bashing and I'm going to steer clear of comment on the actual creative (I think this in particular has been done to death). What interests me is the brand position. In my mind Commbank unfortunately set themselves up to fail in this regard. For one key reason;

When you are a company the size of CBA and operate in financial markets, it is very hard to be truly different. Smaller privately owned companies are much more likely to actually succeed on a promise to be "different". One of the largest, slowest moving publically listed companies in Australia is unlikely to ever be that different. Perhaps their level of customer service has improved; I have heard anecdotal reports of this. And my latest interaction with Commbank (yes I'm a customer) was quite good. But sometimes fate has a funny way of showing things what they truly. Just days before the brand re-launch Commbank was given the perfect opportunity to prove how truly determined they were to be different. The RBA increased the official cash rate and Commbank passed on the rate increase and then some. This seems to me to be a clear example of a disconnect between your brand promise and what your brand actually delivers.

The moral of the story is actions speak louder than words. You need to be authentic in everything you do. Saying one thing and acting another is just not good enough. And a note to Commbank, if you're going to make big claims, you'd better have the courage to back them up!