Why the 'authenticity' era of branding may be holding you back
There is a question that has become the foundation of modern brand strategy. It goes something like: who are you, really? What do you stand for? What is your authentic voice?
And this has worked. Brands that leaned into vulnerability, relatability, and unfiltered honesty cut through the noise of an overcrowded marketplace. We like them. Authenticity became the gold standard.
But also, in a way, authenticity has drifted. What I've seen lately is that what began as honesty has sometimes become something messier, unfiltered or emotionally volatile. Relatable, yes, quite often. But aspirational... no.
Brands have started to feel less like confident voices and more like works-in-progress, uncertain of where they stand and unclear on where they're heading. Being a voyeur on the journey is fun and all, but also, we've seen too much to reeeaally trust they're they right choice for us.
And it's not my assumption that audiences have stopped wanting that kind of honesty. But they have stopped wanting brands that feel emotionally unanchored. What people are responding to now is direction, taste and leadership. A brand that knows where it is going and makes them want to come along. Radical transparency, just minus the chaos ('cos we all have enough of our own stuff going on there).
The 'problem' with authentic branding
The authenticity movement had good intentions. It was a reaction to the overly polished, corporate veneer that had made so many brands feel hollow and untrustworthy. Being real, being human – these were genuinely radical ideas for a time.
But then authenticity increasingly became conflated with accuracy. With documenting where you are, rather than declaring where you are going.
For entrepreneurs and business owners, this creates a particular trap. You have worked hard to understand your current positioning. You know your audience. You know your offer. So you brand to that — to the business you have built, rather than the business you are building.
Authenticity, at its worst, is a ceiling. It keeps you tethered to a version of your business that you have already outgrown.
Aspiration is not dishonesty
The most powerful brands in the world have never simply reflected reality back at you. They have always projected a version of the world – and of you – that does not quite exist yet.
Apple did not sell computers. They sold a certain kind of person who happened to use a computer. Nike has never really been about shoes. Their brand is about what you are capable of when you decide to stop making excuses.
So, let's not confuse manipulation with aspiration. Aspiration is still deeply human; it is just intentional, elevated, and composed rather than reactive and unfiltered.
There is also a body of research that supports this. Consumer studies consistently show that while relatability builds trust, aspiration is what drives desire. Consider how we engage with the people we follow and admire online. We are not drawn to them because they mirror us back to ourselves. We are drawn to them because they represent a version of who we want to become. We follow to project ourselves forward, not to see ourselves reflected.
I repeat: People don’t buy what mirrors them. They buy what pulls them forward.
Aspiration in branding looks like: here is the transformation we believe in. Here is the future we are building towards. Here is who our clients become when they work with us. It invites people into a vision that is ambitious, intentional, and premium in every sense of the word.
Reframing the question
Most brand strategy starts with an audit of the present. Who are you and how did you get here? What do customers currently say about you? What do your analytics tell you?
These are useful questions, but they are not the most important ones.
The question that will transform your brand is: where do you want to be positioned, and who do you need to become to hold that position credibly?
This shifts the entire exercise. Instead of building a brand that reflects your current reality, you are building a brand that closes the gap between where you are and where you intend to be.
For business owners moving into a premium market position, this distinction is everything. Premium is not just a price point. It is a perception, one that you have to cultivate deliberately, consistently, and with considerable clarity about the future you are stepping into.
The brands that lead their market do not wait until they have ‘earned’ the right to position themselves at the top. They position themselves there first and then they grow into it.
[I've shared more about this, with some more questions to ask yourself, in a recent post: Write for who you're becoming, not just who you've been.]
What this looks like in practice
Aspiration-led branding does not mean fabricating credibility you do not have. It means making strategic decisions about how you present yourself, what you choose to emphasise, and the standard you hold yourself to, even before the rest of the market has caught up.
It means writing copy that speaks to the client you want to attract, not just the one you currently serve. It means investing in the visual identity that belongs to where you are going. It means declining work that does not align with the positioning you are building towards.
Above all, it means being intentional. Every touchpoint of your brand – your website, your language, your client experience, your pricing – should be answering the question: does this reflect who we are becoming?
A note on integrity
None of this is an argument for pretending. Aspiration without substance eventually collapses under its own weight. The goal is not to fabricate a brand that you cannot back up.
The goal is to stop underselling yourself. To stop building a brand so tethered to your current reality that it cannot stretch to meet your ambition. To give yourself – and your business – permission to lead from where you are going, not where you have been.
The businesses that grow into genuinely premium positions do not wait for someone to grant them permission to be there. They decide, they brand accordingly, and then they do the work to match it.
I work with entrepreneurs and business owners who are ready to position themselves at the premium end of their market, with a brand identity and messaging strategy that reflects not just where they are, but where they are determined to go.
