Marketing receives critics such as manipulative, tracking and dangerous. The use of personal data to “understand” one further got a lot of criticism to the fact that many people hate the word Marketing, Analysts and all the people in that field. I was well aware of it, and got the look from other people introducing myself working in digital marketing. And recently, a student said it straight to me “I am only in this Marketing class because I need to graduate. I don’t like how Marketers push people to buy”.
In April 2021, when Apple updated its iOS and declared its new personal data or privacy terms; Facebook’s world was shaken. Facebook lives by selling our own data to brands, who of course use such “must-hand-in” info from us to target us again. The same happened with Google. With almost 50% of phone users being Apple, the new rule really threatened the giants. So is it that bad?
A start-up recently pitched to bring fairness to users again. For every user that voluntarily gives their personal data for marketing usage, they have the chance to get the commercial benefits they want. It’s a win-win situation. Now brands don’t just hi-jack users’ data through social media platforms, but brands and users are actually exchanging in a fairtrade. For me, that’s authenticity. You walk the talk.
Authentic Marketing from how Nordic brands do marketing
The way they revealed their metrics and how they use influencers for their communications. It’s very obvious that consumers know a brand ambassador definitely gets monetary benefits. But it becomes more genuine if the brand talks to its consumers in a casual way, on very commercial topics: revenue, likes, share, and so on. WOW!
I was astonished and shocked when I saw the ad. Genuine communication is a typical branding way here. I noticed it since I started watching more carefully ads copies and so on from all brands here. They have the storytelling way as well as a bit too-much friendly and sense of humour. It’s not the type of fun you might see from a Thai TVC. But it’s something very daily life, like a joke. It’s just so real. But this time, it’s more than just real, it’s BOLD. A brand talks about its marketing tactics and how its influencers impact on their campaign. It’s confidence. For me, when you are true and authentic to yourself and to your customers, you naturally grow confidence. And so it’s authentic marketing.
Authentic Marketing with AI bot that can write Content
The world of hi-tech, deep tech, and alike has been haunting me since 2014. As a market researcher, I wondered how paper and pen surveys and in-depth interviews compete with Big data. I was not well aware of machine learning or AI back then but I got a hunch on it. That reason was big enough to drive me to study more. In 2019, this time, my Master's thesis finally got approved.
I was studying The process of generating customer intelligence in multi-size enterprises.
I was astonished again one after the other interviews. As I learned insights can be learned from non-tech approaches or the good use of data. In fact, it still traces back to how we - the creator of new products/services observe and feel the needs of our customers, to serve it right. You can marry between all arrays of data (structured or not) and your guts. But you definitely need empathy to make it right.
Empathy is a keyword for me. Mentioning content marketing, we start to have AI bots that easily help you create a brand new article, the caption for posts and ads. I question when human content writers would be out of demand. But the two words authenticity and empathy bring me back from fear.
If a content writer takes his job as a non-empathetic and commercial messenger, sooner or later, he would be out of the picture. As our pool of vocabulary and speed in typing (and learning) cannot compete with those bots.
BUT if we talk to our audiences, as human to human, as storytellers with emotions, with a genuine desire to help and serve our customers’ lives better, I think we can still live very well. I hope so.
And that is what I call authentic marketing.
Norah VO