Sunday, February 28, 2010

Authenticity


This word conveys much of what is important today in building organization’s brands. We’ve looked at many aspects of our core values with a view to position the company and define meaningful references that stand for who we are.

Along the journey growing the organization the people concerned about having a positive impact in the market can look to the drivers of authenticity to build a robust and sustaining brand.

I’ve come upon the seven key drivers of authenticity in my research for this post and I felt it would be apt to touch on gordongroup’s depth of authenticity aligned with each of these drivers. I’ve been preaching authenticity as one of our core value propositions so here I will substantiate why we’re authentic.

How does authenticity fit into the organization is authenticity a function of the culture or is it more an element of the product we deliver? Authenticity for me effectively extends across both of these areas.

7 Drivers of Authenticity

  1. Originality The extent to which your brand has bought something new and different to the market. We bring new things to the market that drive our clients business bottom line and enrich their stakeholder relations this may include an integrated turnkey campaign in both English and French to produce a magazine. Clients outsource the entire value chain to us including the advertisement sales, design, production and distribution.

  1. Personal Utility This extent to which your brand delivers real utility to users that they feel they can’t live without. On many occasions our team acts on mission critical and time sensitive communications products. This response to our client’s requirements has achieved consistent positive results. Developing strategy and preparing identity frameworks for real estate developments or executing on Federal Government online programs for example G8 conference communication ensure our clients get the support they need toward successful outcomes.

  1. Declared Beliefs The extent to which your brand stands for more than just making money. We’re design centric we deliver design to our clients that is aligned with their aspirations to be represented authentically. This belief is evident in the trust extended to us across our multi disciplinary platform from publishing to digital solutions to documentary filming Design is a core construct of our thinking and delivery.

  1. Sincerity The extent to which your brand tries hard to not let people down. Sincerity cannot be faked our clients validate our sincerity by coming back year after year. This fact is proven with over twenty years of partnership with individual clients.

  1. Familiarity The extent to which your brand is well known by everyone. Our focus for the last couple of decades has been primarily toward our client’s mandates. Celebrating your organizations success and putting it out there is a constant investment. We have about five market facing regimes including Frontline Market representatives, Proposal writing and administration, Stakeholder engagement and Call Centre outreach, Account management on repeat business and Partnership and alliance building with organizations that wish to leverage their offering in concert with gordongroup. We can always do more to build familiarity.

  1. Momentum The extent to which your brand has an aura of becoming more popular. Growth for me is the best indicator of momentum. Growth can be on the bottom line but more important growth is about the people and relationships within the organization and externally out in the market. We build relations weekly, which are exciting and are driving momentum.

  2. Heritage The extent to which your brand has a relevant and engaging story. We bootstrapped the organization and built it on margins over twenty years. Our client’s stories are rich with meaning and we thrive on telling their stories. All these years have made us pretty good storytellers. We work at not becoming complacent or settling for the status quo.

2 comments:

andy said...

Great post Bob - in my experience, the challenge in managing brand across a larger org is getting operational stakeholders to manage and deliver on sincerity. Doing this requires strong internal communications, aligned incentives and operational transparency. If customer service, product quality or pricing issues are impacting brand, getting to these issues is central to delivering on a sustained brand promise.

A brand audit is a great way to gut-check ones performance. Getting an unbiased assessment of the message, how it resonates and how it delivered requires an objective eye. Something an outsider, focused on brand is well positioned to do :)

bobonbrand said...

Andy,
Your expertise in personal branding is something that has emerged as core factor in providing youth an edge in their efforts to get into the workplace.

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I appreciate your insight.

RC