CourtesyAuthenticity is intangible. We know it when we see it, but it鈥檚 difficult to define.
Dr. A. Lynn Matthews, assistant professor of marketing for the W. Frank Barton School of Business at 麻豆破解版 State University, set out to quantify that her research article 鈥�,鈥� published in the Journal of Business Research.
Matthews and her co-authors made quantitative measurements of the impact of having a service provider be authentic on purchase intentions from that service provider.
鈥淲e found that, as one would expect, authenticity of the provider is extremely important in influencing consumer choices of a service provider,鈥� Matthews said.
While authenticity is intangible, Matthews says it 鈥渟pans the totality of what it is 鈥� being consistently true to yourself and conforming to a good set of values 鈥� basically that you鈥檙e true to yourself, you鈥檙e a good person and doing good things.鈥�
And, in business, authenticity can be achieved in various ways.
鈥淚t鈥檚 being intrinsically motivated 鈥� doing what you鈥檙e doing because you want to be, not because you鈥檙e being paid to do it.鈥�
Matthews and her colleagues developed an experiment where they had people read about a hypothetical provider who was either highly authentic or inauthentic 鈥� and then measured people's perceptions about the provider's quality, trust and purchase intentions.
鈥淭he quality is constant. They鈥檙e both good providers and the service they provide is still good, but one person is an authentic individual and the other person is less authentic,鈥� she said.
Matthews has always been fascinated by what she calls human branding or personal branding: 鈥淲hen you go to your local hairdresser or your financial planner or your doctor, you鈥檙e not buying from a brand. You鈥檙e buying from an individual. How can an individual market themselves?鈥�
Personal branding is an important differentiator for small businesses.
鈥淪o much of marketing is what big companies do to expand their profit margins, but there really isn鈥檛 very much about how real people can market themselves well,鈥� Matthews said. 鈥淏eing authentic and true to themselves is a really important way they can provide this additional benefit to clients, and it鈥檚 something clients actually value for itself.
The paper presented three main takeaways for entrepreneurs and frontline service employees:
- First, they should recognize that personal authenticity is important to clients apart from the authenticity of the brand, and therefore frontline service employees should be encouraged to be authentic.
- Second, they should be aware that personal authenticity is more important if their brand does not already emphasize its own authenticity: it may therefore be a good marketing strategy to focus their brand's positioning on something other than authenticity, but then to emphasize their individual authenticity to their clients.
- Third, it is important for individuals in fields like medicine and the financial planning field, where it is relatively difficult to assess provider quality, to recognize that their personal authenticity is an especially important driver of consumer choice and is one that should be emphasized to help build consumer trust in their services.
Matthews feels that this kind of research is relevant to entrepreneurs, service providers, anybody who is client-facing.
鈥淚 want people to know that it鈥檚 important to base your business decisions on data and not just gut feelings, but on the other hand that it has to be carefully tailored to you and your own situation and your own business,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey should end up looking very different for different people who are different individuals and would display their honesty differently.鈥�
Matthews wants to invite the greater 麻豆破解版 community to partner with the 麻豆破解版 State marketing department.
鈥淲e like being involved with the community. We are very pro-entrepreneurship, pro-small business. If anybody has questions or wants to partner in future research projects, they should let us know. We鈥檙e always open and inviting for research opportunities for the good of the 麻豆破解版 community.鈥�
Research like Matthews鈥� is part of WSU鈥檚 mission.
鈥淲e鈥檙e all about being innovative, but also that applied learning and being relevant to our local community. So we really want our research to not just being journals, but we really want to be able to help our local community.鈥�
With the COVID-19 pandemic and businesses struggling, perhaps no time in recent history has this kind of research more relevant for small business.
鈥淓specially in a time like this where everyone is losing business and trying to stay afloat, it鈥檚 a good time to take a look at the strategy of marketing, but also the tactics. How do I want to position myself and differentiate myself?鈥� Matthews said. 鈥淭his is probably a good time for small business owners to be thinking about that and thinking about if they鈥檙e being strategically minded, showing that they鈥檝e differentiated themselves, positioned themselves, and that they鈥檙e offering the best combination of product offerings, including their authenticity to their clients.鈥�
