If you’ve been a visitor to my blog before, you know that I’m big on authenticity. Along with authenticity comes a connection, and I’ve rarely seen one without the other. Sometimes you have to study organizations to see this, you have to pause and think about it. And so it bears repeating.

My philosophy
In today’s world, we can’t pour a lot of words and explanations on people and expect them to act in a way that’s beneficial to the organization, either by buying the organization’s products and services or by supporting the organization internally. We need to hit customers and employees between the eyes with our messages, to show meaning in clear, consistent, and immediately understandable ways that will connect with them at a deep level.

The truth is that good products and good customer service are not enough. We need to connect with customers with a point of differentiation that is unique to our businesses that our competitors can’t also claim. If you are authentically “you,” that’s something no other organization can be. And it won’t change or become obsolete with the next trend that comes down the pike.

I believe that instead of focusing so much on promoting products and services, organizations need to start revealing more about “who” they are as a company and how that relates to the product or service, so that customers can connect with them on an emotional level. The best known brands with the most loyal fans share their authentic characters and personalities with their customers.

Think about your favorite brands. They got where they are by being authentically themselves — think the freedom of individualism, like Harley-Davidson. Or cool design on a budget, like Target. Or a great brand experience, like Starbucks. You get the point — but many organizations continue to “hide” any shred of human traits behind thick walls, preferring instead to let their products and services do the heavy lifting. This, I believe, is a mistake. Customers are people, and studies prove that people, regardless of what they’re purchasing, still like to work with people, they like to relate to people, they like to buy from people.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned in my many years of marketing is this — if organizations will be more like people when communicating, whether it’s to customers, shareholders, partners, or employees, the audience will respond.

[tags]connect with customers, emotional branding, authenticity, authentic branding, differentiation[/tags]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Authentic Brands, Brand Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.