Harnessing Authenticity
🚩In oversaturated markets there’s one way to stand out and aim for success. To be unique, special, but also to be authentic.
Today on our Marketing Tips I will talk you through the deep value in harnessing and mastering authenticity. The power it has to boost success in your projects, and also to keep your motivation spiked through the challenges. We will also explore how to find balance to aim for real authenticity. Let’s get started.
Authenticity can be a tricky term, often confused with authentic, meaning that it’s not a copy. However, authenticity means staying true to one’s principles. Nevertheless, these two terms are not completely separate, they’re correlated and both based on finding balance.
If we go to one extreme, we can understand why nothing is absolutely and fully authentic, because as humans we get inspired by other humans and all our ideas are, in reality, co-creation with the ideas of others. Hence, to a certain extent ideas are inspired or based in other ideas.
The first problem lies when we try to duplicate another person’s work (regardless of the law that applies) because that already exists and you can’t beat an original on being itself. You can compete with price or with quality, but in any case you’ll be working on the terms of the original and orbiting it without much free creative space, until you realize how to honor other ideas as inspiration for your own creations.
The other problem is that copying another work prevents you from being authentic, because you can’t stay true to your principles and ideas when you’re following other person’s principles and ideas. The problem with this is you’re limiting yourself from discovering what your real potential is. The Indian culture has a fantastic way of explaining this on their Dharma concept. You can read Jay Shetty’s definition of Dharma here. This can be applied, naturally to the soul of a business, a product and many things, but also to marketing.
♨️ Brands have a personality, a mood, a way of speaking to their clients and teams. Although it’s important to stay current and follow best practices from successful brands, it’s also important to find our seal of originality, this will help us shine and stand out in an otherwise cluttered market.
Keeping your marketing message, mood, colors, etc. consistent ensures that the message is being sent across authentically. When a brand and it’s marketing stay true to their vision and trend it brings out feelings of safety and trust towards the brand. People will naturally align with you and your rawness. So this might look as finding new ways to communicate that transfer the information in a friendlier way, this might be a touch of vulnerability, this could be opennness and transparency. Whatever it is it will define your brand and also attract your ideal clients and stakeholders in general.
Ask yourself questions such as:
1. What is it that my company/brand brings to the table?
2. Why would a customer choose me instead of a competitor?
3. How am I adding value to my clients through this product/service?
4. Am I staying true to my vision? If not, is it time to realign my vision?
5. Am I doing things the same way because of the routine or because that’s still the best way to the best of my knowledge?
🎀 Find your brand personality, align it with your goals, mission and vision and keep consistent. This will guarantee authenticity and result in deeper connections with your clients and long lasting relationships. Staying consistent doesn’t mean you need to close to change, it just accounts for a safety belt that will remind you that an everchanging entity rarely transmits trust, and when the time comes for authentic needed change, you can transition into it while communicating adequately about it and you’ll see how your stakeholders evolve into any new concept together with you and your brand.
💢Playing by your own rules, shows the world who you are and what your brand is. People, and clients forgive mistakes, confusions and learning, because we’re all human and no one expects your brand to be absolutely perfect and seamless (disclaimer: except when your business is life or death e.g.: medicine/security) But for the rest of us…so long as transparency and authenticity remains there, so long as we’re brought along and feel like there’s authenticity we will naturally feel on our safe haven with those brands.
#BeautifyYourProjects #DesignHacks
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