In April 2017, Kendall Jenner brought peace to the world by sharing a Pepsi with police officers at a protest. It was a beautiful moment in time and could not have been more inauthentic. Pepsi was quickly derided across social media for making light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the commercial was quickly pulled from television.

Pepsi could have prevented the disaster had they read The Experience Economy by Joseph Pine. In 1999, Pine said if you want to thrive in today’s marketplace you have to create a unique and authentic experience for your customers. Pine explained that the desire for authenticity had become the basis for customer decision making.

Traditionally, marketing has been the opposite of authentic. From photoshopping your wrinkles away to using celeb spokespersons to pedal products they don’t use, what you see is definitely not what you get. Marketing has been about showcasing the best of your product, hiding the worst, and downplaying the competition, with the truth being the first casualty in the war for the hearts and minds of consumers.

So how can you market more authentically? If you want to showcase your authenticity, then follow these three rules.

1) Be true to yourself

The first rule about authenticity is you don’t talk about authenticity. If you’re authentic, you don’t have to say it—you show it by being true to yourself. This means your company must act in ways that are consistent with your established ethos. Zappos, the star of shoe sales, found success by being authentic to its values of being customer focused.

On the other hand, Disney betrayed its values. Disney was founded as a family company, providing family entertainment, and did well when it focused on family. However, when the company bought ABC and Miramax, both of which were well known for their racy, more adult entertainment themes, Disney was vilified for going against its ethos. By acting contrary to their values, Disney caused confusion for its customer base.

2) Be what you say you are to others

The second rule for authenticity is don’t make false claims. Making claims that are not corroborated by reality is not very authentic. You need look no further than the advertising done by airlines, hotels, and hospitals to find a disconnect between what is promised and what actually happens when you get there.

We won’t point any fingers here at airlines that break people’s guitars or drag people screaming from their seats, but companies who give an inauthentic image are perceived as fake.

3) Let others speak for you

The last rule of authentic marketing is to let others spread the good word about your company. Nothing is more authentic than word-of-mouth praise from users. You can have your consumers sing the praises of your company with user-generated content, customer stories, and case studies.

Beats by Dre headphones social media campaign “Straight Outta Somewhere” created by Omar Johnson is the best case of user-generated content. People were core to Omar’s marketing strategy for Beats.

Users were able to create memes with a portrait photo of their choice saying they were “Straight Outta …” and inserting their hometown (or any place), similar to the style of the well-known album “Straight Outta Compton.”

The meme generator was an astounding success. The campaign spoke to people’s pride in where they came from, showcasing Dr. Dre’s authentic pride of where he came from, and connected with millions of people in the Summer of 2015. In total, there were nearly 9 million memes created and shared by users, with 27 million video views, 13 million microsite visitors, and a combined media exposure that reached more than 1.2 billion people worldwide.

Dove was also very successful with its user stories about beauty in their “Dove Self-Esteem Project.” Their campaign Dove Real Beauty Sketches had 135 million views when released in 2013.

In the videos, a sketch artist would make two sketches of a woman. The first was based on the woman’s self-description and the second by a stranger. When the sketches were compared, the woman’s self-description was less attractive, showing that women were their own biggest critics. The campaign was effective because it focused on Dove’s values, used real people, and had a clear message.

So if you’re interested in marketing authentically, show your values in what you do, don’t make false claims about who you are, and let your users speak for you.

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