What does authentic branding mean to you? There’s a reasonable chance
that you’ll know but have difficulty pinpointing it.Authentic branding to us is the idea that consumers are drawn to brands
which have a distinctive story, an original edge and a sincere ability to
deliver what they promise.

Since authentic branding is not widely understood, we challenged ourselves
to make it more visible and more valuable to business leaders.

We needed some facts and a point of comparison. So we undertook a sizable
new research study, in partnership with global researchers Synovate. Specifically,
we explored what authenticity means to consumers and created a landmark
league table of Australia’s most authentic brands.

Our Authentic Brand Index has been derived from nationally representative
online interviewing and statistical modelling. Every brand receives an
authenticity measure. The highest possible score is 100.

The Index cuts across many conventional measures of brand strength, longevity,
familiarity and scale don’t automatically confer a high score. In other words,
a brand, sauthenticity must be earned, not just inherited through strengths in
other areas.

What have we learnt to date?

We gained an insight into the size of the challenge faced by Australian businesses.
Every brand we’ve measured so far has considerable latitude to lift its game.

We also got a better idea of the rewards. The research showed that authentic
branding is more than an idea, it delivers a distinct business advantage.
Consumers are likely to pay more and be more willing to recommend brands
that they consider authentic.

For more information on the study and an overview of Australia’s most authentic
brands see www.authenticbrandindex.com.