Personal branding

Authenticity means truly live in your own skin. Authenticity isn't perfect of safe, but it is real. The real you is where the passion happens.

Before I started at International Lifestyle Studies I studied mediamangement. I learned to look at the way that companies use marketing to promote themselves. It was all about the products and how perfect you and your life would be it if you had this product. Some products are compared and designed for some idenitity of people. But we can't be fooled anymore. Transparancy is an word that we would like to hear and see if companies advertise.

Every year around november people start the discussion around the tradition sinterklaas and zwarte piet. The fact that zwarte piet is black they call it rasicsm. This was never the attention of the look of zwarte piet. But now we don't even focus us on that point, we look at who is using this in their advertisements. Some companies decided due to the discussion to not use zwarte piet in their advertisements. A lot of people are boycotting these companies now. But why don't companies stay with their values? People will compare them with those values and buy their products at the company who has the same.

On the surface, the world of marketing is changing constantly. New social media platforms, Twitter protocols, and countless other rapidly emerging trends dominate office talk at agencies. Beneath the revolving door of opportunities however, a major shift has taken place, a shift that will not only fundamentally change every company’s approach to marketing their business, but will also affect how we as consumers share our own stories.

For a company’s message to cut through today’s media clutter and connect with us, the people they want buying their products, it Must. Be. Authentic. Authenticity in today’s marketing world refers not only to an overall brand image, but to every aspect of a business.

The shift towards authenticity applies to major companies and the way they are targeting customers today, but it also applies to small businesses. Why is your business relevant? It’s not enough any more to say, “We have the best .......!” It’s not enough either to say, “We’re the hottest new ........” The consumer is over it. And they don’t believe you.

Let’s pull back even further. Say you don’t know how this could apply to you. The thing is, the shift towards authenticity in marketing is a response towards changing consumer values. You are a consumer. So is everyone around you, and the vast majority of everyone around you has decided that authenticity is important. It’s important in what they look for in a brand, so it’s going to be important in what they look for in a person, in a teacher, in an employee, and in a friend. If brands have to be more authentic than ever in today’s market, so do you.

So the question is, are you comfortable being authentic? Is the real you something you actually want to share? If we as a population are getting better at sniffing out fakers when it comes to corporate advertising, it stands to reason that we’re getting better at sniffing out fake people too.

Perfect isn’t cool anymore. We can all see through it, and for some of us, that’s a pretty scary reality. Perfect was safe. When we could pretend to be perfect, no one would question us, no one would ask us the hard questions, our problems and insecurities were wrapped in an ugly little box in a corner somewhere, and we didn’t have to deal with them unless we really wanted to which, as far as we were concerned, would be never.

So those of you who don’t work in marketing, who don’t run small businesses or freelance, think about your personal authenticity. Take some time and try to answer the most important question you can ask yourself: Who Are You? Then decide to be that and only that. Live in your own skin, not anyone else’s. See where it takes you.

#appearance #authenticity #marketing #personal