Authenticity and Consumers

We have two new books in the library on authenticity in advertising. The first, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), shows how successful enterprises identify themselves with their customers' self-images and desires. The book provides practical management tools to help businesses assess their perceived authenticity, develop new approaches for appealing to the "real," and implement specific strategies to render authenticity. A second new book on authenticity is by social media specialist, Rohit Bhargava. *Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose their Authenticity and How Great Brands Get it Back (McGraw Hill, 2007) is also based on the premise that the age of the faceless corporation is over. The new business era is one where great brands and products must evoke a dynamic personality in order to attract passionate customers. To be successful today, businesses must redefine themselves in the customers' universe.

This week, I also received an Harvard Business School Working Knowledge email, "Authenticity Over Exaggeration: The New Rule in Advertising." According to John Deighton, consumers are using the Internet to blunt traditional commercial messages, and it's time for companies to rethink their marketing strategy. For example, successful advertising campaigns today are self-parodying , and spark discussions rather than blatantly sell products. Deighton cites Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign, a multiphase effort with an underlying theme that subverts traditional beauty product messages of aspiration and perfection. In one ad, full-sized regular-looking women are used. In another, young girls reveal insecurities about their looks, showing the harm done by unrealistic standards set by the industry. In these cases, the ideas belonged to the consumer you're trying to engage; get them talking by presenting a topic they want to discuss. Deighton notes, "When a brand adopts a point of view, rather than simply making a claim for softer skin, for instance, it can become a lightning rod for discourse." However, you do have to be confident that your message can withstand Internet threads of re-interpretation. John Deighton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His working paper, "Digital Interactivity: Unanticipated Consequences for Markets, Marketing, and Consumers," will be published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing.

In a nutshell, authenticity has to do with the consumer using technology to learn about the marketers, rather than the other way around. Consumers today use sites such as eBay, YouTube and Facebook to gather information and share opinions on how they spend their money. The marketer no longer controls the message.