Authenticity.

We crave it. In a world where everything seems fake, being real has literally become the real deal.

But authenticity has never been central to the branding playbook.

Brands were traditionally images, creatures of the Marketing department, designed to identify the brand and entice customers. Betty Crocker may produce wonderful cookbooks and Mr Kipling bake exceedingly good cakes, but neither of them really existed. Hollister may have proudly proclaimed its 1922 origin, but it was actually founded in 2000 by Abercrombie & Fitch.

Manufactured images, with the companies behind them lurking in the shadows. It’s hardly a solid basis for a brand to be considered authentic. And simply adopting the latest slang or jumping on the latest trends and memes to try and appear real is just another version of fake. Authenticity is not a campaign.

What does being authentic mean?

However, some brands are seen as authentic. So what does being authentic really mean?

When you ask people, you tend to get a wide variety of answers. However, these generally boil down to three main areas:

• Being genuine, rather than pretending to be something it’s not. Patagonia, Apple, Red Bull are examples. It’s clear what they stand for and what they value. It informs everything they do. Wherever they show up, whatever they do, they feel true to themselves.

• Being open and honest, with nothing to hide. Dominos explicitly admitted its past mistakes and set about fixing them. Costco and Trader Joe’s are seen to treat their customers and employees well. While Ben & Jerry’s and IKEA clearly care about their social impact.

• Staying true to its values over time, rather than jumping on the latest trends. In-N-Out still make burgers much as it did at the start. Lego has stayed committed to creativity through play. While BMW hasn’t wavered from precision engineering and driving excellence.

So what is a brand to do if you can’t just message your way to appearing authentic?

5 steps for building authenticity

It’s essential to self-reflect and build some solid foundations:

Know who you are

It’s difficult to be true to yourself if you don’t know who you are. So be clear why the brand exists beyond making money and what values and beliefs you live by. These don’t have to be grandiose statements about saving the world. But they should be grounded in making people’s lives better in some way, and connect directly to what the brand does.

Live who you are

You can’t just tell people who you are. They will experience the brand in many different ways. You have to live it. Embed your core values and beliefs in the culture of the business, so that every time someone touches the brand, it feels like the brand.

Be transparent

Pull back the curtain and demonstrate that the brand isn’t just a manufactured image. Share what you stand for. Show how things work and what you do.

Put people first

Seek to understand what people need, both employees and customers, and set about helping them. Show that you care about people more than just profit.

Stay the course

Think of your values and beliefs as a North Star, always guiding the brand on its never-ending journey, keeping it true to itself.

None of this gives the brand the right to proclaim its authenticity. People decide if it’s authentic, not the Marketing department. But in a world where brands are touched in every expanding ways, the brand will at least show up as itself. Every time.