Why you need to be an authentic brand and how to create one

When building your brand, don’t try to be what you are not. That’s hard to live up to. Build an authentic brand that isn’t trying to be something it’s not.

You want to show up as yourself, but the highest version of yourself. But it needs to be YOU!

Really own who you are as a brand. Own what it is that you stand for and don’t try to be something you’re not.

A good example I can give you of this would be the hotel industry. In the hospitality industry, hotels, as you know, are graded with stars. You can find three star hotels, four- or five-star hotel, you get the idea. The expectations and the experiences at hotels of different stars is different. The star rating serves to tell guests the standard they should expect.

They bring different values to their customers and obviously different price points and different experiences within those price points. So if you go to a three-star hotel, you’re going to expect a certain level of service, a certain standard which is going to be for the most part quite acceptable. What I’m saying is, if you are setting your brand to be a three-star brand, you don’t want to market it as a five-star. You don’t want to try to be that five-star brand if you are actually only a three star. There’s nothing wrong with being a three-star brand. Own it if that’s what you are and market to the segment that will respond to that brand. Put out messages and the values of that brand at the three-star level. When a three-star is being a three-star that’s an authentic brand. The same applies the other way around. If you’re a five-star brand, you don’t want to be slipping down to a three-star level and confusing your customers.

Deliver to the expectations that you set. If you’re a three-star trying to be a five-star, you’ll have serious trouble later on.

Just do you. Be proud of you and totally own your brand. If you aren’t clear on what your brand is meant to be, your customers won’t be clear either.