1. Authentic Branding
vs.
Branded Authenticity
Søren Askegaard
University of Southern Denmark, Odense
20.3.2012

2. When will they ever learn?

3. Holt: Why Do Brands Cause Trouble?
Brand manager side Consumer side
1. Push of branding principles 1. Brand inflation and increased
to their logical extreme literacy
2. …No stories untold 2. … Brand fatigue
3. ”Authentic” cultural 3. Authenticity extinction
resources  Breakdown of distinction
 Untouched by modernity.. between culture and
 Counter culture commerce
 Wanted: authenticity

4. 40 middle-class consumers
Ethnographically inspired studies of 40 consumers in
Denmark and Sweden representing various social
groups within a middle-class environment
Participant observation, ethnographic interviews, diaries,
elicitation techniques
 Daily eating and shopping patterns and principles
 Reflections on food quality
 Social discourses/subject positions of ”health and eating”
 Evaluation of brands and their credibility in terms of
health
Additional survey and experimental data

6. Brand (health )credibilities
→ the experience of this ”authenticity hoax”?

7. An informed consumer’s health brands
”The thing is that I would never consider
buying any of these products. If I want
something healthy, I rather go directly to the
source instead of buying something that has
been through so many processes and then
mixed into a sort of product”

8. Producer-consumer co-creation of value
“The food I eat is not branded. I mean, you would never
see a commercial for broccoli would you? , so…well,
then of course it is…I mean, Årstiderne is a label one
could say…it is a brand…apparently”
(Lene, 27, Denmark).
 People eat foods, not brands
 The co-creation of value
 The crafting consumer (Campbell)
 .. And the crafting producer

9. The good, the bad, and the bridging
CRAFTING
PRODUCER YES NO
CRAFTING
CONSUMER
YES ROMANTIC EMPOWERED
IDEAL CONSUMER
NO ”GOOD” THE POWER OF THE
CONVENIENCE DARK FORCE

10. The power of the dark force
[points to a packet of industrial rye bread from Kornkammeret]
“I really find it wrong that they can add all that sugar. I find it grotesque that it
is impossible to get a pure product, they always add lots of things; they
add additives, colourings, and apparently also sugar. I find it really
grotesque. It is because it is much cheaper than doing it the healthy way”
(Birgit, 41, Denmark).
[asked whether she would consider buying Probio, a yogurt product from
major dairy company Arla]
“It is a thing I would never even consider buying. It is for those who want to
be efficient, I believe it is sold as a quick solution for a healthy life. Like this
‘take this and you will be healthy the rest of your life’. I simply do not
believe in it. It is so processed, and so marketed, it seems as though it has
been through so many processes. This is not made thinking about the
health of the people, but because this huge company Arla have found out
that it gives profit” (Christine 28, Denmark).

11. The romantic ideal
[Written in her photo diary about products she would like to buy but
can’t] Mushrooms I would like to buy unpacked, by weight, fresh.
Unfortunately I don’t trust quality and origin in shops and therefore
I rather pass. My mum picks the mushrooms herself in the forests
of Jämtland and shares the harvest with us = LUXURY! (Karin, 38,
Sweden)
“We really like to drive to the farm shops to see what they have, as well
as to the small dairy companies. They are getting more and more
popular. Then you find a product in their shop, which makes us say
‘this they make well’. And then we gladly drive 20 kilometres
frequently to get it because we have found out that it tastes so
good” (Gudrun 59, Denmark)

12. ”Good” convenience
“I have the feeling that products from Thise signals really good quality.
Without having read much about it I believe I once met one from
there at the farmers market. There was this man standing there…I
said ‘hello’ to him and I remember that his hand was so rough that
he looked as though he had just been out to fetch the cow himself.
To me that is what [Thise] signals. For this reason it is also more
expensive than usual” (Steen, 41, Denmark).
“Grønnegården and Hanegal [both companies specialized in organic
products] then you know that the people working there, they really
want this job. It makes it more trustworthy, that there are people
working that really want a good product. But I must admit, I don’t
actually know Grønnegården” (Christine, 28, Denmark).

13. Empowered consumer
“I bake my own bread. I would never buy that kind of bread [industrial bread].
When I make rye bread I buy my flour from Amo, where you just have to
add yeast and water. It might not be particularly healthy, but I make it
myself. I do not know about the rules for percentage of fat, but I still bake
my own bread. I would never buy [industrially produced bread]” (Gudrun,
59, Denmark).
[Photo diary: picture and text of what symbolizes someone she wants to invite
her for dinner at that person’s home] “A jar of ginger cookies. This year the
cookies are baked after my son’s God mother Beata’s old relative’s recipe. I
would love to be invited home to Beata and Joakim now before Christmas,
especially as she cooks such great ginger cookies and makes it so cosy.
Beata shops at Netto, Domus, the market hall, in Denmark, at Ahlgrens in
Lund, an eclectic mix of places. Low price and luxury mixed. She has this
amazing skill to find great combinations in a balanced style. (Madeleine, 41,
Sweden).

14. The work ethics of brand consumption
 Homo Faber vs Animal Laborans
 The creating human and the working animal (Bergson,
Arendt, Sennett,…)
 The ”Why” and the ”How”
 The central role of (perceived) craftsmanship
 Towards a semiotics of ”authenticity”
 A ”leap of faith”
 How do we work on transforming nature?
 Back to the initial quote

15. Contrariety of
GENERIC materiality
”BRAND”
PRODUCE
Complementarity of Complementarity of
organicity economicity
”NON- NON-GENERIC
BRAND” Contrariety of PRODUCE
(CRAFTED production (INDUSTRIAL
PRODUCT) mode PRODUCT)
BRANDED AUTHENTICITY AUTHENTICITY BRANDING

16. Branded authenticity / Authentic branding
 Homo Faber, WHY: Mission over money vs money over
mission
 Animal Laborans, HOW: ”crafting” vs. ”industry”
 ”Our” consumers provide an ”experienced authenticity”
 Authenticity in the object or in the process of its creation?
 The authenticity of the generic?

17. Concluding critical reflections
 Authenticity : an analytical concept?
 the difference between ”one original” and ”an idea about
an original”
 Or ”a way of talking about things in the world” (Potter)
 The authenticity of beauty and the beauty of
authenticity
 An absolute quality or a relative valorization?
 Reflexive culture’s consequences
 The story of the ”pølsevogn” (Danish hot dog stand)
 Coke is was the real thing

18. Thank you for your attention…