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09.20.2002

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Breaking Out Of The Big Brand Authenticity Dilemma

It hit us the other day that authenticity is a double-edged sword. The big companies that have the resources to communicate authenticity rarely have it, and the small companies that have it don't have the resources to communicate it.

At our strategic brand consulting division of The Hartman Group, we know that it's one of the four pillars of brand strength. But authenticity is intrinsically elusive, hard to create and, like seafood, is only good when it's fresh.

Small entrepreneurial companies are naturally authentic because the owner/founder/key manager is their brand. They live it, breath it and are passionately committed to it. And it shows, in all their messy, sometimes confusing, but always authentic meanderings. But big company managers charged with wellness brands are professionals. And the trouble is that the subvocal message that wellness shoppers pick up is: "These guys were selling fast food burgers yesterday, and today they're trying to sell me a wellness product? Give me a break." So what's a big brand manager to do? We think the answer is not in what you say but who you are. That is, who you really are.

You may or may not remember the Merry Pranksters, Ken Keasey's band of crazed hippies who crossed America in a painted bus with a destination plate that read "FURTHER." Just reading Tom Wolfe's recounting of the Merry Pranksters adventures in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test should be sufficient to break the most buttoned-up of MBA's into a sweat of authenticity. Even though few people ever actually saw them and even fewer ever "got on the bus," the Merry Pranksters trip across America was a catalyzing event and catapulted them to a long-term place in America's Zeitgeist. The answer for them was in the abandon of their old lives, paying attention to the real, the now and what moved them. The answer for you will be the same.

Odwalla gets it.

So who does authenticity well? One of the best examples I can think of is Odwalla juices from Half Moon Bay, California. While they only have distribution in about a third of the country, what they have is done really well. And now, with the advent of being purchased by Coca-Cola, they have the opportunity to take their brand that much further.

You discover Odwalla juices by the free standing refrigerated case that they place in grocery stores. The bright colors and wild designs hearken to a rainforest. Their pledge "juice for humans" is about as far from packaged-goods adspeak as it comes. And, as soon as you see the products, you immediately understand that these people are the genuine thing.

They're obviously comfortable with themselves and what they do. Antioxidants aren't some exotic chemical that an R&D technologist has suggested adding to their products. It's an inherent property of the mangoes and cranberries. The echinacea in their cold fighter is a natural outgrowth of their lifestyle, not a fad nutraceutical. Heck. They even make spirulina and wheatgrass taste good.

But what's most important is the sum of the parts. When you stand back from their cooler and ask yourself what's being communicated here you stop seeing products and start seeing a window. The sum total of their communication is a window into a better, "more well" lifestyle. And the invitation says: "Pick me up and try me, I can help you feel terrific." It's compelling, believable, and it works.

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