Branding is based on relationships

Jessica’s brand is heavily based on her close friendship with Meghan. In fact in her pitch deck, the first slide is a photo of her and Meghan. She’s also the daughter-in-law of a former Prime Minister and has leveraged her relationships into her own TV show, sponsorships and a correspondent role on Good Morning America.

All of that came crashing down when Toronto Blogger, Sasha Exeter revealed what Jessica had done to her.  

In the wake of the protests in June 2020, Sasha made a general call for support of Black Lives Matter on social media. Jessica saw her post and thinking this was directed to her personally, responded that she would not because her brand sponsors would be turned off if she spoke out.

When Sasha pressed her, especially given her famous friend, Jessica got heated and came after her, letting her know that she had contacted Sasha’s brand sponsors and told them to cut their sponsorship.

Well Sasha wasn’t having it. She went public on Instagram and spilled the entire tea. The backlash was swift and Jessica responded quickly, publicly apologizing citing her experience “with her closest friend where race was front and center.”

Then 5 minutes later, she privately DM’ed Sasha and threatened to sue her for libel. 

The reason why so many people hate branding.

It’s fake.

Branding has been abused

The truth is branding has been used to cover up so much bad behavior that people are completely turned off from the idea of branding itself. There are people and companies whose approach to branding is to use strong branding to create a false persona. One that allows them to get away with bad behavior rather than do the hard work of actually living up to their mission statement.

This has allowed them to continue to get away with behavior that if their loyal customer base knew about, they would abandon them immediately.

The rise of social media

The fortunate thing though is one thing has changed that’s taking down all that fake branding people are doing … social media.

Big brands are scrutinized on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok more than ever before and there’s an outcry whenever they fall short of their image. They simply can’t get away with putting lipstick on a pig anymore.

That’s why it’s so important today for your brand to be authentic and true to who you really are. Successful branding can stand up to the scrutiny of social media when it’s authentic because it is true to your character, your values and who you are in the image of your loyal customers.

And customers reward authentic brands. 

Nearly nine out of 10 consumers are willing to take action to reward a brand for its authenticity, including 52 percent who would recommend the brand to others and 49 percent who would pledge loyalty to the brand. (crowdspring.com)

You can’t get away with a fake brand anymore, so don’t try

So Sasha posted Jessica’s threat to sue for libel straight on to Instagram. Shortly after that Jessica’s world came crashing down. First they cancelled her TV show, then one-by-one her sponsors dropped her, citing support for Black Lives Matter, then GMA said goodbye.

As the final blow, the Duchess of Sussex put out word through her friends that she was appalled at Jessica’s behavior, and they are no longer friends.

The lesson — build a brand that’s true to who you are and what you stand for because you just can’t get away with faking it anymore. 

Take the first step to building your own authentic brand. Take the brand archetype quiz and get your guide to building an authentic brand based on your personality and strengths.