Building An Authentic Brand Voice: Connecting With Audiences Through Consistency and Transparency

As recently published in Magnet’s Top 10 Story Trends from Cannes Lions 2024, authenticity in brand voice is imperative, especially for companies looking to gain customer loyalty and trust. 

Authenticity is a buzzword, but what does it really mean for a brand to have an authentic voice and why is it so important?  

As referenced in Magnet CEO Megan Cunningham’s most recent article, a recent Edelman Trust Barometer report showed that 81% of consumers say brand trust is a deal breaker or deciding factor in their buying decisions. Recent Stackla data echoed this sentiment, reporting that 90% of customers mentioned authenticity as a key factor in choosing brands. 

What Consumers Look For 

Especially for younger generations, authenticity is essential. Gen Z and Millennials prefer realistic as opposed to idealized brand representation. Today’s consumers are generally proficient researchers who are aware of their options. Building trust through authenticity not only makes this choice easier for customers by connecting with them and establishing loyalty over time but also by helping break through the informational clutter.

Connecting with customers pays. A 2015 Harvard Business Review cited that “fully connected customers” were worth 52% more than “highly satisfied” ones. 

Authenticity boils down to conveying to audiences a particular genuineness. We’ve broken it down into two key aspects: consistency and transparency. 

Consistent Brand Messaging 

Consistency is paramount in building consumer trust because it reinforces brand identity and signals that a brand is reliable. Consistency means a company is presenting itself similarly across platforms and various distribution channels. It extends to which influencers and other brands a company partners with. When considering consistency, it’s important to consider one’s tone, mission, and values. 

Consumers are sensitive to discrepancies in how a company presents itself and increasingly care about its values. Inconsistent messaging will discount a brand as unreliable and two-faced. 

A company presenting itself as caring about environmental justice, while producing large amounts of carbon emissions, for example, will be deemed as ‘greenwashing.’ Greenwahsing is essentially a marketing scheme in which companies pander for support from the environmentally conscious, while not truly caring about their environmental impact beyond their ability to make money. This will often lead them to make internal choices that are not in alignment with their public-facing values. In an online world where consumers are increasingly educated on and invested in the stories behind the products they buy, this won’t fly.    

This is why consistency is crucial, not only for a brand’s public-facing actions, like choice of marketing campaigns and brand partnerships, but through all actions. This is what a Forbes article calls “Walking the Talk.” It extends to employee and client relations, investments, and much more. A company must assume that all will come to light, and so not being not acting in alignment with goals and values will eventually backfire. 

Clear communication of who a brand is and what it stands for builds consumer trust, especially over time. It also establishes a brand’s trademark, helping it stand out amidst an overflow of available information and alternatives.  

Transparent Communication

Consistency goes hand in hand with transparency. It conveys authenticity by gaining consumer trust and better connecting with their audience. Transparency looks like frequent, open communication. Successful brands are in touch with the consumer headspace and engage in open discourse. For consumer brands, this could look like directly responding to questions and comments on social platforms. For tech and finance brands, this often takes the form of holding open discussions and Q&As at investor events.

A willingness to listen to and integrate consumer feedback communicates that you as a brand value your customers’ opinions. It makes your company more real, and less of an unreachable corporation. 

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