If happiness results from living authentically, are you authentic if you’re happy?
I’m advised by a host of new age self help manuals that happiness is “neither an end nor a means, but rather a product of living an authentic, wise and outgoing life.” This quote comes from a review of 3 said manuals, so for the purpose of establishing a starting point, let’s say this is the summarized secret to happiness.
So does this road go both ways? If I’m genuinely happy, surely I am living authentically. And getting to the point of my musing, can this transfer to become a means to judge and manage brand authenticity??
Of course I, as an individual, would have a sense of when I feel happy and, again referring to my new wave gurus, this will have very little to do with economic success or perceived social success. So how can we know if a brand is happy if we are to look beyond their share price and facebook likes?
If you’re still with me, here’s my brainwave: Perhaps if you can measure happiness for an entire nation, these tools can be effectively transferred to objectively measure a brand. So let’s look to the Bhutanese government and their measure of Gross National Happiness (GNH) to inform our brand authenticity valuation.
Below listed are the four pillars of GNH immediately followed by a rational transplantation to brand that I hope you find useful.
1. The first is sustainable and equitable socio-economic development. This stresses the improvement of physical, intellectual, social and economic health through services such as health, education, trade and commerce, road and bridge construction, employment, urban development and housing.
Does your product add something positive to the lives of your customers. Does it have a compelling purpose or reason for being? Standing behind a genuinely quality product is 90% [made up statistic] of the battle when reviewing commercial authentic behaviour.
2. The second pillar is conservation of the environment. Only 16% of Bhutan’s land is arable, so there is pressure to fell trees and sell timber. But the law requires that the proportion of tree cover must not be less than 65%. At present about 72% of Bhutan is forest.
Thinking about the impact your company has on the environment (natural and social) may require you to place limitations on productivity and competitiveness, however there can be significant gains from investment in corporate social responsibility (CSR) which far outweigh any potential cost.
It’s widely recognised these days that CSR is no longer regarded as fringe luxury, but as vitally important to business survival.
The business community has embraced this idea with European Competitiveness Report revealing ‘CSR is good in good times, but an undeniable must to cope with bad times.’
Consumers have voted with their wallets as ‘Business in the Community’ has carried out research that shows that companies consistently running their business according to responsible principles outperformed the FTSE 350 on total shareholder return.
And finally, whether or not you take the ethical step willingly, more government directives across the globe will see appropriate measures are set in place to enforce this responsibility (ie. UN’s Global Compact , resuscitated carbon emissions programs, etc). Read more about the above CSR observations here.
3. The third pillar is preservation and promotion of culture. The Bhutanese government views this as a crucial strategy to preserve the country’s sovereignty. It has implemented policies that conserve and promote Bhutanese religion, language and literature, art and architecture, performing arts, national dress, traditional etiquette, sports and recreation.
If you consider distinctive culture as a means of differentiation and engendering tribalism (in the healthy sense) then your brand will need to be unique in every manifestation of itself; language, visual assets, custom (service) and product.
4. The fourth and the last pillar is good governance. The Bhutanese believe that good governance is vital for the happiness of the people.
Finally, good brand management is key to ensure these pillars are rigorously and consistently adhered to.
This small task of course includes ensuring PR, and overt messaging (ATL, BTL, TTL, etc) is expressed with one voice locally and globally, monitoring and participating in social forums, coordinating digital, print, radio, collateral, merchandise, sponsorship, CSR, alliances and sky writing.
You wouldn’t be wrong to think this is a large ask however the brands that do it best achieve it with ease through fostering a strong internal brand that lives and breathes through their employees (thus sharing the responsibility!) by ensuring the essence of the brand is at the heart of the organisation.
For a different and more comprehensive take on brand authenticity measurement and analysis, have a look at our authenticity model.
Go forth br(and) be happy!
