AUTHENTIC BRANDING
Is it even possible to build an authentic brand?
In this blog post I’ll cover:
→Why the phrase “Authentic Branding” might be giving you the ick!
→If it’s even possible to build an authentic brand?
→How to build a more authentic brand?
01 WHY THE TERM ‘AUTHENTIC BRANDING’ MIGHT BE GIVING YOU THE ICK!
Before I begin to delve into whether it’s possible to build an authentic brand, it’s important to explain the problematic usage of the term “authenticity” over recent years amongst certain voices within the business development industry.
When we entered the phase of “connection over perfection” within online spaces (ie. the shift in audience appetites from hyper-curated aspirational content to relatable, realistic “raw format” content), a subsection of marketing & business development professionals reacted to this shift by promoting the idea of “authentic marketing”.
The idea here is to use “authentic feeling” content & brand messaging as a strategic tool to appeal to current audience appetites in order to maintain profits & sales.
You’ve probably noticed sponsored posts from big corporations cos-playing as the “everyman” (every-day person) through the use of UGC (user generated content)…or CEO’s creating “personal accounts” and awkwardly attempting to appear relatable to an audience of people that couldn’t relate less to their life experiences!
- This is a direct result of implementing the advice of said marketing professionals in attempts to stay relevant in an online world that values relatability.
The problem here is that intentionally constructing something to feel authentic is in direct contradiction to being authentic.
So if you hear the term “authenticity” in business development spaces & something automatically get the ick - this is probably why!
However, although the term “authenticity” has been co-opted by sales experts & turned into a buzzword that directly contradicts the meaning of authenticity….there are a huge number of smaller businesses that genuinely want to build a business that’s authentic to them (& not for the sake of appealing to their audiences.)
…but, is it even possible to build an authentic brand?
02 IS IT POSSIBLE TO BUILD AN AUTHENTIC BRAND?
The short answer is no!
(but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still try)
As a brand designer + personal brand strategist, my thoughts on this is are that the fundamental goal of your branding should be to get as close to authenticity as possible…and see this as a constant “work in progress” throughout the duration of your brands lifetime.
Later on in this post I’ll share some prompts & frameworks to help you consider how you can move towards a greater degree of authenticity within your branding - but first, I want to spend some time explaining the challenges of building a “truely” authentic brand.
To understand the challenges of creating a truely authentic brand, it’s important to define what branding actually is. Although this can differ depending on who you’re talking to, my personal definition is this:
Branding is a communication tool to help your community to understand who you are & if you’re the right fit for them.
As branding is a communication tool, the level at which you can show up authentically as a business owner is limited by both our communication ability as individuals & language constraints as a society to translate our internal worlds externally in a clear & succinct way.
Even if we had a tool that meant we were able to communicate the entire history of our internal landscape in real-time (including all the thoughts, feelings, ideas & opinions we’ve ever had) - there would be so much information that it would totally go against the purpose of branding which is to help you to communicate with clarity & cohesion.
…….Ok, let’s pause here for a second so I can acknowledge that I’m aware I’m being pedantic here & when people ask me to build an “authentic brand” they’re not expecting me to create a brand that directly translates everything about them - what they’re asking for is a brand that aligns with their beliefs and feels like an extension of who they are.
However, as my job is to help people communicate who they are, I’ve had to really consider the limits of authentic communication in order design tools to help them get as close to it as possible.
03 PRACTICAL TIPS & RESOURCES TO HELP YOU BUILD A (MORE) AUTHENTIC BRAND.
“ Authenticity is the degree to which a person's actions are congruent with their values and desires, despite external pressures to social conformity.”
When your goal is to build an authentic brand - it’s important to focus on building your brand around who you are as opposed to building a brand that’s designed for audience consumption.
Traditional approaches to branding generally focus on identifying a “target audience” first and reverse engineering a brand persona based on the personality traits & values that will align with a given audience the most.
However, if your goal is to establish a brand that’s more authentic, your primary focus needs to be on identifying core parts of your personality, experiences, values & opinions that relate to your business in some way - then identify a group of people that will naturally gravitate towards you because they align with who you are, what you offer & what you have to say.
01 Get really clear on who you actually are!
It sounds obvious, but in order to build a brand that’s more authentic to you, you have to get really clear on who you actually are (and who you aren’t).
To help you do this I’ve created what I call my “Forage Framework” (click the button below to download for free) which gives you prompts to help you start collecting ideas about what makes you, you in a format that directly links to key components of your brand messaging later on in the process.
I know from experience that the hardest part of mapping out key parts of your identity & experiences is to do it in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you & give you too much information, so the forage framework is filled with guided activities to help you collate the most useful information about yourself without feeling like you have to write down everything about yourself.
Take some time to think over this (and when I say time, I mean try and give it a couple of weeks) - the more time & space you can give yourself to mull things over the more clarity you’ll be able to achieve later on in the process.
02 Clarify your brand message
After you’ve identified key information about who you are - the next stage is to get really clear on which parts are relevant to your business (and which aren’t).
To do this, you can start by asking yourself these 3 questions:
✔️ Do you know exactly what it is that makes you different from others in your industry?
✔️ Are you able to pinpoint the unique value that your clients will get as a result from working with you (that they can’t get anywhere else)
✔️ Can you explain what it is that your clients can relate to you on the most?
(BONUS QUESTION) If I asked you to summarise all of the above into a sentence, what would you say?
If the answers popped into your head as soon as I asked them, you’ve already clarified your brand messaging & identified your unique perspective ✨
However, I’m going to guess that either your mind went blank or brain became instantly flooded with thought and ideas.
Whilst I’d love to help you out with this as part of this post, there really isn’t any one-size fits all advice on this unfortunately, but this is exactly what my Find Your Voice package is designed to help you to do. So if this is something you feel like you’d like some help with click on the button below to find out more.
03 Build a visual toolkit that helps you to say all the things you can’t put into words!
Once you’ve clarified your brand messaging + pinpointed exactly what it is that you want to say, the final stage of building a more authentic brand is to express yourself through your brand visuals.
I’ll talk more about this in another blog post soon, but if you’re considering working on your brand visuals over the next couple of months, you can find out about the different branding design packages I offer here.
04 KEY TAKEAWAYS
This has been a very long read, so if you’ve made it to the end, firstly,thank you so much for reading.
Writing this blog post is a direct outcome from applying my own messaging framework to my business & I can’t even begin to explain how empowering it feels to finally be able to write something that communicates some of the thoughts, feelings and opinions I’ve had about my industry for years but never had the confidence, conviction or clarity to be able to achieve this.
I hope it’s helped you in some way or given you food for thought! To round things off, here are some key takeaways which you can note down or screenshot if you want some reminders:
Whilst it’s not possible to build a truely authentic brand, that shouldn’t stop you from trying.
The goal of branding should be to get as close to authenticity as you possibly can & continue to work toward this on an on-going basis.
When you’re able to build a brand that closely aligns with who you are creating content feels so much more empowering.
For prompts to help you identify how you can brand a brand that better aligns with who you are you can download my free “forage framework” here.
If you have any questions at all or want to book in a call to discuss your plans and ideas around your branding, you can email me at admin@bethbrickman.co.uk or schedule a call time with me here.
Beth 🌞