May I Speak Candidly?
By E.B. Moss
At a time in our social evolution when “obfuscation” is an aspirational skill, transparency is a refreshing quality, and something consumers crave more and more from brands. Ironically, that has driven so many marketers and personalities to claim “authenticity” that it has become an overused word. But, while they seem few and far between, we can still find respected companies and brands who can genuinely stand up to scrutiny around claims of “what you see is what you get.”
In our latest side-by-side perspectives, we found two voices speaking up for and even embodying transparency. Tank Design’s Chief Operating Officer, Scott Watts, describes his agency’s expertise in providing clients with strategy and design to boost their brand marketing, while candidly admitting that those same clients are best served when Tank partners with outside shops more expert in performance tactics. That is transparency, and drives trust in Watts’ words of advice about the essential pillars needed for brand strength. Not surprisingly, his key “brand ideals” are mission, vision, and values.
It is, he says, “very much a situation of doing what is right and needed for the customer. Everything you do as a brand must ladder up to these brand pillars.”
“While they seem few and far between, we can still find respected companies and brands who can genuinely stand up to scrutiny around claims of ‘what you see is what you get.’”
A brand that is doing that well is the disruptor division of, believe it or not, mega-telecom Verizon, called Visible. Their very name engenders one of their own pillars, a mission of transparency and connection, upon which their flat-rate/all digital service was built. To hear Pearl Servat, Head of Demand Generation and Brand Marketing, describe the positioning is to hear the essence of brand transparency: “At Visible, we don't BS our customers,” she says. “It’s a ‘what you see is what you get service.’ What really resonates with us is the theme of ‘come as you are.’”
As Servat’s own title implies, Visible extends that approach across both brand and demand marketing, including cause initiatives and spokesperson alignment. In explaining the excellent fit (and quantifiable results) of partnerships with marquee names Kevin Bacon and Dan Levy, she says, “we only work with talent who also walk the walk when it comes to social impact, what they stand for on an ongoing basis, and how they connect with their own communities.”
Candidly, transparently, I hope you’ll read the full articles in this edition of The Continuum, and also share them out socially. We could do worse than having these brave voices remind others of the value of—dare I say?—authenticity.
November 2, 2021
