Why brand authenticity is important
We talk a lot about brand authenticity and I want to explain why. We’re finding that many of today’s brands are superficial, meaningless and fickle. And it’s not just brands that are letting us down. How disheartening is it when you meet those people who are a certain persona on social media, only to find out that they’re not that person in real life?!
We believe that a lot can be said for authenticity in this day and age. It’s not a new concept. In fact, one of Australia’s iconic brands – Aesop – has always valued authenticity and built their brand upon this ideology. Aesop’s brand is a about knowing who you are. Not conforming. But being confident. Staying true to who you are and what you stand for.
How we apply it to our own business
When we were developing the new strategy for Alike, we had to be honest with ourselves. If we try to be cool and quirky, we fail miserably. We have a sense of humour and we definitely don’t take ourselves too seriously. But we take our work seriously. And we know our limits as to how far our creativity extends. If the work’s related to festivals, kids, or kitsch, we’re out.
For this reason, we’ve narrowed our focus to specialise in premium branding. It’s our natural style to design identities and messaging in ways that would be considered more corporate than mainstream.
What we’ve found is that by being authentic – by being true to who we are and understanding our limits as to what we do best – people respect that more than if we were about trying to please everyone and every brief. People respect that we can’t be everything to everyone. Instead, they want to know our unique strengths, our differences, and where we can add the most value. This is what people value most.
What are your greatest strengths or skills? It’s worth thinking about…
