The Real Deal

RoUNDTABL e

The Real Deal
What makes a brand authentic?
Tony Pace: Authenticity comes from putting who you are frontand-center and always remaining consistent with the consumer’s experience. We try to be straightforward and simple about who we are at Subway; everything is right there in front of our customers and we let them make their own creations. It’s essential to be transparent in termsof what you have to offer, while also allowing consumers to participate in that process. A third strategy is to combine the brand’s story with the consumer’s. When I was in high school, a guy showed up one day at track practice with Tiger running shoes, which weren’t sold in stores yet. We felt like we were the only ones who had them, and that made those shoes feel authentic. Then there’s what Icall the “Kurt Cobain” strategy of saying that authenticity is a myth, that we’re all part of this giant cog of commercial capitalism, so just commit to selling out. It doesn’t matter what you are committed to, you just have to be committed. If you “live Dave Fiore: Authenticity is so many things — your brand history, your ethos, and how you are perceived relative to your competitors. All of thosethings go into the stew of authenticity. Ultimately, authenticity comes down to one word: understanding. You must understand your consumers and the place that your product plays within their lives. You must understand all the pluses and minuses of your product in their minds. Authenticity is where the rubber meets the road and fiction becomes truth. Authenticity is when you know what your brandis and you have the confidence to be what you are. When you have a place in the consumer’s life and you are relevant, then your brand can be very, very powerful.

Authenticity in brand identity is hard to fake.

A R oundtAble F eAtuRing
Tony Pace
Subway

Being small and local adds authenticity, and that’s a competitive advantage.
T on y PAC e

Jeff murray
University of Arkansas

JimGeikie
Burt’s Bees

Jeff Murray: I see three or four strategies at work. One is what I call a “staged” authenticity, where a larger company tries to connect locally in some way. Walmart is doing this with its smaller format stores, for example. A second strategy is to mark your competitors as inauthentic, which Dove does with its “Real Women” campaign. It’s their way of saying that they arehonest and transparent, while implying that their competitors are inauthentic.

it” completely, even if that means selling out, then you are authentic. Jim Geikie: Authenticity starts with being honest, genuine and real. It’s about really being truthful. It also helps to have established roots and a history. It is about having clear and transparent principles and a track record of consistentbehavior against those principals. When you marry authenticity with integrity, that’s the path to trust.

Is a brand’s authenticity more important today than in the past?
Pace: Brand authenticity is more important than ever because consumers are subjected to so many more marketing messages. People are consuming more media than ever, and sometimes they have multiple screens on simultaneously. So, whenyou’re not as genuine, people tend to tune you out and hold you in lower regard.

Dave Fiore
Catapult

JULY/AUGUST 2011  THe HUB

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That’s why Jared Fogle, a Subway brand ambassador for more than ten years, has been so effective for us. Jared is not someone we created in marketing. He is a real person who really lost 245 pounds by eating Subway and walking. He has been able to keep theweight off because he continues to eat at Subway and does all sorts of good exercise. Murray: Authenticity is more important today because consumers have become so sophisticated in terms of reading marketing strategies. When I teach my undergraduates, one of the common reactions I get is: we already know all of this; we just didn’t have a vocabulary for it yet. In other words, they didn’t have a...