Should Branding Advertisements Communicate Authenticity?

  Nowadays, our living and society are bountifully teemed with diverse types of brands of organizations. Mostly, as a daily customer, the enterprise brands are the most impressive and easily seen no matter where we locate. A brand symbolizes the idea, culture, products and even the spirit of the owner organization by connecting and amplifying audience’s memories with them. Honestly speaking, these visual effects haven’t been any problem to people living in twenty-first century; it is the reality and authentic value that we care and examine the most. Since ages ago back in the commencement of commerce, brands are no longer just an image of a corporation; they are the first critical factor to distinguishing the fate of a company, which is decided by customers’ inclination and brand’s authenticity.

  Nevertheless, a huge shock has smacked most of customers in Taiwan into deliberation of thinking of the value of brand. The gutter oil scandal news broke out and spread widely couples of months ago, dismantling the myth of brand’s authenticity severely since most of the oil producers were labeled a national identification, like GDP, indicating the products are totally safe and under the standards by the Food and Drug Administration. Such a collapse in Taiwanese industry of food has caused questions emerging for rethinking: What makes customers blindly but totally trust the brand or identification; why an inauthentic brad is able to relay so much fake authenticity information to the audience; should we boycott the brand communication? The issue of branding actually involves different respects, including the method of branding, the mindset of customer and the necessity of branding. Each of them is connected together and it is expected to take much effort to figure the cause and effect.

  In previous paragraph is the case of inauthentic brand pretending to be authentic. But, after research, there’s also a case showing the failure of true authenticity. The Heinz is a food enterprise emphasizing manufacturing natural and eco-friendly products. The ingredients and materials the brand express are all authenticity; much to astonishment, there’s one time a colossal failure happened to Heinz’s branding as well, causing numerous loss. Here brings out another question that why the authentic brand that relay authenticity is not trusted by the customers either. Since both cases lead to negative end, we are offered the issue for discussion: If a brand will eventually fail, then whether it is necessary for a brand communicating authenticity or not?

  From personal perspective, the crux lies in the way of communication and the aim for authenticity. There could be several complex circumstances possibly affecting the effect of communication. By analyzing detailed key factors behind and ahead the brand, we might be able to distinguish the necessity of authenticity.

References:

Austin, R. (2014, September 8). Taiwan reels from gutter oil scandal.

     The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/

Joseph, J. (2014, October 1). Beloved brands connect emotionally to lead the pack.   

     [Entrepreneur]. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237890