07 Mar Brand Transparency vs Brand Authenticity
Lets look at these attributes in more detail.
Transparency is a property of observation
For brands to be transparent, there must be an absence of hidden agendas and conditions, and a minimum degree of disclosure wherein transactions, practices, dealings and agreements are open to all for verification. While the operations of a business can be made to be transparent, it does not mean it creates resonance.
Authenticity is a quality of demonstration
To operate the brand with authenticity, a brand needs to connect emotionally and show empathy. This brings us back to the importance of story and how the brand voice resonates with authenticity. As with transparency, the communication is not what is most important, the reflection in how the human beings behind the brand demonstrate these qualities, is.
So how do brands do this? Follow these three simple rules:
1. If you demand customers to be open with you, you better be just as open with those customers.
2. Be so honest that when you make mistakes, admit it and when you do great things, be humble. Nobody likes humblebrags. So many brands on Twitter or in their terrible television ads claim. “We’re so great, everyone loves us, our competitors stink.” You are asking for a ‘karmic payback’.
3. Beyond what can be told publicly from regulatory standpoints, be so open that what you tell your staff shouldn’t require “internal only” disclaimers. When you have internal vs. external politics, nobody wins and ultimately the managed systems internally leak out to the external world and shows how inauthentic you really are.