The Forrester Corporation

Authenticity may be in the eye or the ears of the beholder, but when it is the hands of the beholder as an experience, no marketing consultant will be able to turn corn into gold! In many ways, our media and journalists see themselves as the 'voice of the people', but as recent reports into the levels of 'trust' the public have in bodies such as the BBC demonstrate, we make our judgement on experience rather than headlines. The experience does not have to be direct, a simple referral from a friend or colleague can make the difference between a purchase or not.

With so many ways that ordinary people or consumers (as we marketing consultants say) can now exchange good, bad and ugly stories about their experiences of products, services and information; organisations should be rightly concerned about the 'authenticity' of the information they market. As Marketing Consultants, we have a duty to support our clients in clear thinking the outcome of poor experience. History and experience leaves a legacy of examples of poor products and services that resulted in the fall of companies - Ratners, Rover and British Rail.

However, we cannot leave out the media corporations that own the primary vehicle for information delivery - either paid for advertisements or editorial coverage. We too could compare journalists, reporters and corporate executives to less than favourable characters in a vein attempt to raise our moral position. But what would that achieve? No, I think its best to leave it to people - you and me - to make our own call on authenticity and confirm that experience is and always will be reality!

Read the full article - The Times: Saturday 21st July 2007 - The Devil is a Marketing Consultant (Matthew Parris)