Now let's take a look at some academic insights. The topic of authenticity has become quite popular in recent years, thus there's quite a lot of research on this topic and lots of studies we could examine. I'd like to focus on two recent and very interesting studies in this domain. The first study was published in 2014 in the Journal of Marketing Research. This study was conducted by two professors at Yale University and it contains a series of experiments that examine how the authenticity of a product's origin impacts consumer behavior and perceptions. For example, in one of their experiments, they examined perceptions of Levi's jeans across two groups of participants. Both groups were first shown a photo of Levi's jeans. The first group was told that these jeans were made in Levi's original factory in San Francisco California, while the second group was told that the jeans were made in newer factory located outside of the US. These researchers found that the participants in the original factory group rated of the jeans as more authentic and were willing to pay more for them compared to those in the newer factory group. The results of this study suggest that authenticity is affected by the way a firm promotes and represents it's products to their consumers. It also shows that consumers are willing to pay more for authentic products. This perhaps also provides some insights to why Apple promotes its products as being designed in California. The second study was published in 2015 in a journal called The Review of Marketing Research. I think it's a really fascinating paper. In this recent study, a group of marketing scholars at Western University in Canada conducted a series of examinations about brand authenticity. Let's discuss two of their studies. In the first study, these scholars examined, they asked 100 participants to identify brands that they feel are inauthentic, and then provide reasons why they feel this way. The results of this first study revealed that there are two key factors that make brands seem inauthentic. These two factors are first of all, imitation, and second, mismatch. I'll explain each of these. Imitation occurs when a brand is seen as copying another brand. For example, several of the participants in the studies viewed the clothing firm American Eagle as simply a cheaper copy, a knockoff of Abercrombie and Fitch. Now let's take a look at the second concept mismatch. Mismatch is when a brand's projected image doesn't match reality. For example, several participants in the study say that Martha Stewart's image as a perfect homemaker doesn't really match the fact that she's in actuality a convicted criminal. Now that we've examined these academic insights, let's take a look at some practical things that firms can do to leverage digital authenticity. First of all, and perhaps most importantly, just be yourself. The American actress Judy Garland once said, "Be a first rate version of yourself not a second version of someone else." This is good advice. Indeed, psychologists tell us that people who are true to their inner self are typically happier and feel more fulfilled than those trying to be something that they're not. The same principle also applies to firms. Companies that are true to their heritage and their current reality are less likely to be viewed as inauthentic, and as a result, should be more likely to obtain favorable responses from their customers. In contrast, firms that try to imitate others or present their brands as something that they're not often find themselves in trouble. For example, McDonald's has got into trouble by trying to portray itself as a restaurant full of healthy choices. As recently noted by Carlos Garcia the CEO of [inaudible] which is a digital consulting company, "Consumers can smell inauthenticity." Number 2, be consistent. Once a firm tells its authentic story, it needs to stick with the story even if it seems unpopular at times. For example, during the recent great recession, many Americans cut back on making large discretionary purchases. As a result, many companies responded to the recession by offering discounts or offering lowered price versions of their products. In contrast, the American motorcycle company, Harley Davidson, responded in a different way. They actually responded to this challenge by reinforcing its image as a symbol of freedom and rebellion. Through their ads, told Americans, and this is their quote, "Fear sucks and doesn't last long." That's a good example of an authentic response. Authentic promotions also need to present a consistent story across all of it's different promotional vehicles, both online and offline. For example, Stella Artois consistently conveys its story as a Belgium beer that was founded way back in 1366 across all of its platforms including television, commercials, social media postings, it's web page, and even on its bottle. This is important because inconsistent stories confuse consumers and often make them suspicious, and suspicious customers are never a good thing. Three, admit your mistakes. Another part of being authentic is being able to admit when you're wrong or when you've made a mistake. For example, Domino's Pizza publicly admitted that its pizza wasn't very good and they were working hard to make them better. So for example, they created a series of ads and videos that showed actual people trying their pizza. This campaign was a great success and helped Domino's increase both its revenues and also its profits. Indeed, firms that admit their mistakes are less likely to have this mistake made public by someone else. If that occurs, this mistake becomes much more embarrassing and more costly in the long run. For example, after United Airlines refused to admit that they broke his guitar, the Canadian musician, Dave Carroll, wrote a song about this incident. The song is called United Breaks Guitars. He released this song on YouTube. This video has received nearly 15 million views and has resulted in substantial embarrassment for United Airlines. Fourth and finally, use your customers. One of the key themes throughout this course is the role of digital tools in transforming customers from passive recipients to active participants in the marketing process. Thus, firms can employ the help of their customers to both craft and also communicate authentic promotional campaigns. A great example of this is Jones soda. Its customers create all of its company's promotional videos, thus these ads are inherently authentic and also had the advantage of being completely free. Well, those are my thoughts about digital authenticity. I'd like to hear your thoughts about this fascinating topic, and also, your examples.
