Can You Be Authentic?

"A great performance stirs ones soul, rearranges someone's molecules, turns one's being inside out. It gives you a new insight on life, a new place to stand, a new range of experiences." [Benjamin Zander]

To me authentic is the expression of a company culture through marketing communication in human speak. A simple digest of complex information of what the company helps you do that makes it interesting. More storytelling and appreciative inquiry than positioning.

To translate that in internal communications, it's what gives you that rise of pride in your chest when you read a memo. Less messaged, more real. Here's where we are, here's where we're going. You're very much part of it, and this is why.

When related to external publics, it's the easy conversation that takes place with a trusted source, someone who comes through with technical or domain knowledge. What you need to get the story written, the numbers down, the details straight, the community informed. It's when you know that the truth is more important than the facts.

Truth in advertising? There can be such a thing. It may not be a campaign. Truth lasts for as long as things change and things change all the time.

[seal from Mila Displays]

Comments

[Dan Schawbel]

http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/the-fine-line-between-saving-face-and-authenticity-for-your-personal-brand/

Valeria, I did a whole piece on authenticity this week. The question I pose is "what is the fine line between saving face and authenticity"?

[Frank Martin]

So true. This can be applied to any sort of relationships, whether within a family, or between a corporation and its customers. In this age of "spin" and the need for control, authenticity is frequently sacrificed.

Great blog!

[Susan]

Valeria,

Thank you for this simple, to-the-point post. I plan to use it as a guide in coaching my business leaders.

[Julius]

I think you made a great point there. Specially when you talked about appreciative inquiry.

As Seth says all marketers are liars and if there is no truth in communication these brands belong to the past!

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Dan -- thank you for offering to extend the conversation started at your blog. Here's a thought on saving face and authenticity - where can you meet yourself in the continuum between what you think you need and what you already have?

@Frank -- because we rarely take change into account. We operate within static premises. I do hope my friend Peter can join this conversation. He's a master in thinking with me around this topic.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Susan -- simplicity is so hard to achieve. That is one of the biggest reasons why marketing and business communications tend to be complex to digest. That and the approval process :)

@Julius -- if we approached telling the story of the organization/product/service in an appreciative inquiry format, we would be talking about what it does well. We would then go back and do more of that, making the product even better. Godin's message in "All Marketers are Liars" is that truth is relative to worldview.

[Scott Monty]

Valeria,

Great post. I happen to be a huge fan of Benjamin Zander, who is not only a wonderful public speaker, but also a top-notch conductor here in the Boston area (especially for the Mahler fans among us).

It's interesting that you chose a quote with teh word "performance" in it. Of course, he's a conductor so it makes sense, but what about internal communicators or marketers? Should they be considered performers? When you think about Seth Godin's assertion that marketing is all about storytelling, then yes - telling a story is a performance.

I'm reminded of the old George Burns quote:
"Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

There's no need to confuse performing with acting; telling a good story should be the very thing that allows your true personality to bubble up and allow others to connect with you.

I actually did a post addressing the question as to whether authenticity can be taught: http://www.scottmonty.com/2007/11/how-to-teach-marketers-to-be-authentic.html

Thanks again for the succinct and spot-on post (much more so than this comment!).

[Valeria Maltoni]

Scott:

Thank you for taking the conversation into an interesting direction. I, too, am an admirer of Ben Zander and have read his book, The Art of Possibility, twice.

Let's think about the word performance as in what works with symphony, infusing meaning into the communicated. I am also an admirer of the work of Peter Brook and with him performance becomes very much participation.

I did a quick research on the word etymology:

"The verb 'parfourmen' meaning to do, to carry out or to render, first appears in English in about 1300. It's seen again some seventy years later as 'performen', borrowed from the Old French 'parfornir'. The French meaning was much the same as the English, to do, or to carry out. The noun performance crops up in the early 1500's meaning, simply, a thing performed.
It's not until 1709 that we encounter the word performance in the sense of a public exhibition or entertainment. It appears in an article by Steele in the Tatler."

[Greg]

In response to your line "To me authentic is the expression of a company culture through marketing communication in human speak." I would counter “Authentic is one’s actions.”

Do you want to know what I truly believe? Look at my checkbook, see how I spend my time, observe how I treat others. That is the “authentic” me.

[Geoff Livingston]

Valeria: Right on the money. I can't wait for Rohit's book to come out this Spring, because I think it's going to help a lot of people bridge this gap.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Greg -- I am strongly biased towards action so no need to convince me. However, I do believe in the power of intention and that is what I'm talking about here. Clearly, any statement needs to be followed by action to be credible. Thank you for adding to the conversation.

@Geoff -- ditto. I am curious to read him as well. What does authentic look like? Pine/Gilmore attempted an explanation, too complex for me to get my head around it. I think it does go across all the expression of a brand.

[Shiv Singh]

Valeria,

I enjoyed your post on authenticity. I have to wonder though about the translation to story telling thought specifically too. Storytelling by its very nature implies someone telling a story with an audience in mind. Can authenticity truly develop in that manner? I believe authenticity takes shapes through interactions (and actions, to Greg's point) when you declare your intentions and open yourself up.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Shiv,

Thank you for taking the time to visit and comment. In storytelling, what is real and what isn't depends on the person living that reality. Point of view in story is just that.

When we say that marketers tell stories, we are saying that they choose a point of view for the narrative. That will resonate with the people whose point of view or worldview matches or complements it. Clearly experience needs to follow.

I am an admirer of the work of Avenue A | Razorfish so keep up the great work!

[Karen Hegmann]

Valeria

Love this post. I too have read Benjamin Zander's book.

If being authentic is more about storytelling than positioning, then more companies should create environments that help employees feel as if they "own" the story.

At the micro level, their performance will ultimately affect what happens outside the company and this sense of authenticity will attract more attention and buyers.

The truth is important. There's so little of it, that its mere presence makes one stand up and take notice.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Thank you, Karen. Story is the oldest form of social media that I know. Spread and linked to by word of mouth, built upon over the ages, and infused with local flavors.

The other night I was in the presence of a natural storyteller. He offered that novels where the news of the times. Think of Charles Dickens, for example. If he had not told those stories, people would have not learned about the circumstances of his characters.

Employees already own the story - think water cooler conversations.

[Julie, writer Surefirewealth.com]

Some people tend to over think what they do. They want to come off as authentic but they are too focused on their efforts that they end up appearing fake. I also feel that authenticity has something to do with knowing yourself and just sticking to that and not putting on too big of a show.

[Amadou M. Sall]

Authenticity is everything.

Without authenticity, there's nothing but wilderness, both conceptual and emotional: your message will sound dry, lame and hollow, terribly unconvincing.

Just be yourself! And even if you have "external influences" (we all do), make sure they are properly "digested" and have become part of you.