Branding truth
Truth is the easiest way to implement and maintain your communications because truth is natural, genuine and memorable. It’s also expected.
There are many cases where brands and businesses have been caught out stretching the truth, or worse—outright lying—to staff, customers and society. In a lot of cases, the repercussions have been enormous because news travels exceptionally fast in our digitally connected world.
For example, consider VW’s emissions scandal (2015), which cost the brand over $30 billion; or the financial sector, which prompted the Global Financial Crisis as a result of their greedy practices and which ushered in new levels of distrust for banks; or Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica debacle (2018), which caused the closure of Cambridge Analytica and, in 2019, cost Facebook a $5 billion fine (which may be pocket change for an organisation that made $16.9 billion in the second quarter of 2019, but the impact to its reputation was extensive); not to mention BP’s mishandling of the 2010 Mexican Gulf oil spill. Each example involves various levels of deceit.
When it comes to truth, we can assess a business or brand by what it says (words) and how it behaves (actions). How these two add up determines our perception of that organisation.
When it comes to truth, we can assess a business or brand by what it says (words) and how it behaves (actions). How these two add up determines our perception of that organisation. Aside from ethical reasons for being truthful, there are perhaps more practical reasons for doing so in terms of communications and branding: truth is easier to remember.
Now, that might sound painfully obvious, but truth is based on more than just words and actions. It’s based on experience—something that’s lived. We remember the context, and the circumstances. We recall how a ‘truth’ came about: what was involved, when we experienced it, with whom, and how we felt in that moment. When communication (and branding) is based on truth, the business can position itself in the market with confidence—in the knowledge they can back it up through products, services, words, actions, behaviours and history.
In other words: proof.
This is equally vital for staff. With clarity and truth, they avoid having to remember or recall fabricated stories for marketing purposes. If that clarity aligns with their own experiences then staff will remember it in visceral terms, allowing them to express or convey it in their own words—rather than scripted versions imposed upon them by the Marketing Department.
Combined, these stories and experiences from each individual get consolidated within the business. When that truth shows up consistently in products, services and customer relations, it becomes embedded in the minds of people inside and outside the business. It then becomes enshrined in the brand DNA.
This is how reputations are built. Branding it is how reputations become recognised—whether doubling down on a reputation that’s already recognised (or being recognised), or entering a new market, where that recognition is absent. When truth is central to your reputation, that’s something worth being recognised for. And, as I’ve said in previous writings, having a recognisable reputation is the simplest and smartest context for a brand to emerge—because it’s earned, rather than claimed.
While this is something branding designers can help identify and articulate, a ‘truth’ must first come from within the business. It must be compelling and validated beyond clever words, logos or marketing campaigns.
A ‘truth’ must first come from within the business. It must be compelling and validated beyond clever words, logos or marketing campaigns.
As a designer tasked with the challenge of translating what a company stands for, its aspirations and its business strategy, unless I’m working with truthful and tangible information I’m simply guessing. It’s like throwing suggestions against the wall—based on assumptions—to see what sticks. And it doesn’t add to any reputation capital the business may already have.
This approach essentially asks whether the business ‘likes’ the proposal, rather than challenging whether or not it’s an honest portrayal of them—one that they can embrace and live up to (in terms of actions, behaviours, culture, products, services and Purpose). Put simply, anything short of truth is dangerous, because it presents and propagates deceit.
All professional designers should be expected to challenge anything that’s misleading or vague. And while branding provides assistance (meaning it won’t build a brand on its own), it should lay clear foundations and a blueprint for the business to leverage and build their reputation (and potential brand) with confidence, clarity—and truth.
As Simon Sinek says:
“Being right doesn’t make us trustworthy. Being honest makes us trustworthy.”
