Good authenticity, bad authenticity

There is a lot of talk on authentic brands. The word authenticity runs the same risk as quality. When we talk about quality, everyone implies GOOD quality. When authenticity is discussed, everyone implies that this is a good thing. But authenticity isn’t necessarily good. Nor does it mean good.

                     

If we start equaling brands to organizations I think there are a lot of authentic brands that perform well but aren’t necessarily good for us. I think of Al Qaeda, IRA, ETA, the mafia, street gangs etc.

These groups are authentic in the sense that they are true to their values. They have a strong culture and they have hangers-on who share their values. They would qualify as an authentic brand. However, it makes clear that being authentic doesn’t say anything about the intrinsic value of that authenticity. So authenticity by itself means nothing and neither does the term authentic brand.