Authenticate Subtly

Some years ago, researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison documented how Starbucks had become a victim of their own successful branding of the shops as an authentic coffee experience. The research found that many customers, after being convinced of the importance of such an experience, decided Starbucks was bragging too much about their authenticity. Those customers gave up on Starbucks and aimed for other shops which showed more humility. Consumers figured that the more you highlight your authenticity, the less authentic you are.
     Later, a New York Times article documented anecdotally the same sort of phenomenon with craft and artisanal offerings. Consumers are experiencing an overabundance of these products. Home furnishings retailer West Elm partners with Etsy, a marketer of handmade pieces. Pottery Barn highlights their “Found” collection of distinctive items collected from around the globe. CB2, a spinoff from retailer Crate and Barrel, hired a craftsman to hand-build a limited edition of 200 American black walnut side tables, which were peddled at twelve stores and via the online catalog.
     Even at a production run of 200, a claim of uniqueness or of handcrafted authenticity wears like a thin veneer. The artisan was quoted in the NYT article as saying, “I felt like an employee at a Ford plant, drilling 1,200 holes in a day or two.” A brag of “uniquely authentic” starts sounding to consumers like a synonym for “faddishly routine.” The Wisconsin researchers referred to this as a “doppelganger brand image.” Doppelganger is defined as a ghostly counterpart of a living entity.
     How to avoid the problem? Maintain the appeal of authenticity by featuring it subtly.
     Retailing consultant Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy, praised an imaginative use of product adjacencies by a Restoration Hardware store. An expensive chest being offered for sale had a large old-fashioned jar positioned on top. Inside the jar was a collection of ball-peen hammers also being offered for sale.
     This directly contradicts the peanut-butter-and-jelly principle of product adjacencies. The grocer stocks the jellies on shelves close to where he shelves the peanut butter because when a shopper puts a peanut butter jar into the shopping cart, she’s likely to start thinking, “Where is the jelly?”
     The chest/hammers adjacency is more whimsical and serves a function known by consumer psychologists as priming. The authenticity implied by the large old-fashioned jar subtly spreads to the consumer’s associations to the ball-peen hammers.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more:
Prime Customer Interest with Adjacencies
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Brag About Your Retailing Humility