The Pursuit of Brand Authenticity

Who are you when the market is not listening?

An intensive for founders, creators, and small + big teams — with seven prompts to find your true story.

These days, my office is often the fold-out desk at my condo, or a table at a rustic café in Montreal. And on these desks and table-tops, I’ve spent many hours, working on my, drum roll, brand identity. So that if someone ever asked, “So what do you do?” I have a convincing answer.

If you’re a new founder, small or big business owner, you at some point run into this pursuit—to know if you’re staying authentic for the sake of your brand’s survival or longevity.

If someone asks, “So what do you do?” you may start with all the specs, and then stall. You lead with features; halfway through, you wish you had one honest, passionate answer.

That’s when it’s clear—you and the brand need to talk.

If you run something—studio, shop, product, or practice—you already know this: some days the work is loud, and some days it’s like the cursor blinking on a blank page.

Both are mirrors.

The loud days can be messy yet energising; they say, keep going. The blank days are quieter; they invite you to slow down rather than despair, and make sure everything you’re doing aligns with your story—aka your brand.

Carl Jung suggested that to find the self, we must explore the masks we wear and the archetypes we lean on. In branding, this means your identity work isn’t just branding—it’s psychology.

You’re uncovering the true self of your business beneath trends and roles.

When I was a kid, I learned most of my big words with my nose buried in the Oxford Dictionary. I learned words like “authenticity” in there too. If you’re building a brand, you know it isn’t so different. For a while, you’re learning and figuring out your true story.

You’re trying to figure out what is “our promise, our voice.” You can talk about it a lot on socials, but one day you must mean all of it. Not to impress an algorithm—but to orient a human.

Brand authenticity is a loop: know your true story → say → do → check → adjust. You say what you promise, do it, check how it landed, and adjust until the words match the work.

So how do you know your brand is aligned with its true story? You feel it in the mirrors your business meets.

• The pitch mirror: An investor asks, “Why you, out of the three other people with a similar product?” Your answer takes the long way around. You feel it.

• The customer mirror: A sales-call transcript shows people praising the same thing you barely mention.

• The review mirror: A 3-star review explains your value more clearly than your homepage.

• The inbox mirror: A customer writes, “I love you for _______.” You realise you never say that on your site or socials.

• The analytics mirror: Visits on your page climb, but the people arriving aren’t quite the ones you built for—they churn quickly or ignore the CTA. That’s a positioning mismatch, not “wrong people.”

Or the mirror I ran into at that cozy café in Montréal: a curious stranger asked, “So what do you do?”

To connect to that stranger or your customers, you have to know yourself first. And you have to show up with authenticity.

None of this is a crisis. It’s just your brand tapping the glass and asking to be named.

What brand authenticity really means (beyond marketing slogans)

Authenticity isn’t a slogan on your About Us page. It’s the quiet agreement between:

1.     Your identity (who you are),

2.     Your promise (what you say),

3.     Your behaviour (how you show up), and

4.     Your customers’ emotions (what people actually feel when they come across you).

Here’s how those four points can look in practice:

• Identity: A founder who always leads with curiosity, showing up as a learner, not just a seller.

• Promise: A café that says it’s about community, and backs it up by remembering names and orders.

• Behaviour: A brand that claims sustainability, and proves it by shipping in recycled packaging.

• Customer emotions: A design studio whose clients say, “I love the creativity and designs! It inspires me to try new ideas, and my own clients light up when they see the art concepts it sparks.”

Each point is a mirror. When identity, promise, behaviour, and customer emotions all reflect the same story, your authenticity holds steady.

If these reflections stir something in you—pause. Sit with the thoughts, the feelings, and write them down.

Don’t rush to label them. First, notice what’s already true and then name it.

Seven brand prompts to guide you to your true story

(inspired by Jungian self-exploration and identity psychology):

1. Where did your brand come from? (the day you decided it had to exist; the problem you lived)

2. Which parts of yourself do you proudly show—and which do you hide? Why? (strengths, edges, secret handicap, opinions)

3. What do your happiest customers keep thanking you for? (their exact words; paste a few here)

4. If you stripped away every label—category, feature, award—what is your core promise in one sentence?

5. Which characters live in your brand—Innovator, Builder, Disruptor, Rebel—and who’s leading right now? (name the mix; choose a lead)

6. What beliefs about growth or worth did you inherit (hustle myths, vague “industry standards”)? Which no longer serve you?

7. When was your last deeply aligned decision (product, price, positioning)? What did it teach you?

   
   

Answer what you can today. Circle what you can’t—and promise you’ll return.

I take another sip of my coffee at the café and close my notebook. The stranger who asked, “So what do you do?” smiles and waits for an answer. I lead with the true story, not the features.

Brand Authenticity isn’t a buzzword—it’s a practice. Every mirror you meet is simply an invitation to adjust, align, and carry your story forward with more clarity and heart.

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Gentle notes:

— You don’t have to cover all bases; you just have to show up as your true self, with intention.

— Clarity isn’t about inventing something new—it’s about recognising what’s already true and naming it.

— If a brand choice makes you breathe easier, trust it.

Thank you for reading this blog.

— Zeba, Founder at HOC