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The Conference Board Review® Article
Questioning Authority
Jim Gilmore and Joe Pine explain why companies need to keep it real -- or seem to.
Do customers see you as authentic? According to Strategic Horizons consultants James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II, that question means everything. "Authenticity," Pine says, "will increasingly become the lens through which consumers view companies." The pair have tackled the thorny -- and maddeningly ephemeral -- subject in Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (Harvard Business School), in which they call on business to better manage customers' views of what's real and what's phony. "The perception of authenticity ought to weigh into a company's decision-making, from strategy down to basic operations," Gilmore says. "Quality weighs in; cost weighs in; demand creation weighs in. And rendering and managing authenticity ought to. We're hoping to get that started." Gilmore, 48 (left), and Pine, 49 (right), spoke from their respective offices outside of St. Paul, Minn., and in Shaker Heights, Ohio. -- Matthew Budman
When did you start noticing all the ads and labels insisting that things are real and authentic?
Jim Gilmore: Those words just dominate advertising and packaging today. The moment when I knew we really had something was when I came upon, in the grocery store, Kraft cheese and shells with a starburst on the package: "Made with real Velveeta." You wouldn't want to get that fake Velveeta, would you?
Joe Pine: We realized that this was crazy -- why would people react to all this in any other way than to think it's inauthentic? If the first time we meet, I go up to you and shake your hand and tell you, "I just want you to know how authentic I am as a human being," how are you going to react?
If you have to tell me you're authentic --
Pine: -- the one thing you know is that it's not true
Gilmore: Another iconic example for me, early on, was Wrangler: "Real. Comfortable. Jeans." And beer ads on TV started using the word "real" over and over again.
Pine: Last week, in Nashville, at this year's thinkAbout -- an annual two-day event we hold -- we had a group go out to a grocery store and pull off the shelf all the items that said "real" or "authentic."
Gilmore: Give him the pinnacle item.
Pine: It was called Bourbon Chicken Sauce -- with "authentic food court flavor." There are actually people out there who are cooking and aspiring to authentic food-court flavor.
You must have built up quite a list of ads and products.
Gilmore: Upon arrival in Nashville in my hotel room, I turned on the TV and started writing down all the commercials and shows that used authenticity. I saw a commercial for FakeChecks.org. There was the Wrangler ad. Papa John's Pizza had an ad with the tagline, "Tasty, authentic Italian flavor." I tuned to ESPN, Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. A local restaurant ran an ad for "real Italian cuisine." A Hamburger Helper ad said, "It's a real mini-meal." Then Real Time With Bill Maher.
You write, "Now more than ever, the authentic is what consumers desire." Are all consumers seeking authenticity?
Pine: No! Once you have a new lens with which to view the world, it's very difficult to turn off.
It sounds as though the way you present a message is more important than its content.
Gilmore: In certain product categories, yes. It's not just certain types of consumers -- say, cultural creatives who look down their noses at Olive Garden or even Bourbon Chicken Sauce. It is a purchase criterion that is seeping into the decision-making of all consumers. It's just like quality or cost influences different people more or less, and influences them differently in different things that they consume. Authenticity is an ever-present thing. I'd be hard-pressed to find a consumer who does not base some decision in some category based on how real he perceives the item to be: This is a real car; this is a real set of golf clubs; this is a real insurance company.
Pine: If you interview people and ask point-blank, "Do you like buying phony stuff?", few people will say, "Yeah!"
Gilmore: And it's everyday transactions as much as it is buying a product off the shelf with silly wording on it. Last year, my wife was struggling with our Ethan Allen financing agreement. Our statement had a line buried on page 2 that we missed, and we got hit with a $405 finance charge. So I got on the phone, and of course they can't fix it, and they end the call with, "We value your business." Do they really? It's just so insincere. Little things like this definitely contribute to an organization being viewed as phony.
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Return to the November/December 2007 The Conference Board Review® issue.
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