well, no doubt about that… I picked up this post on brandautopsy and it suits my post from yesterday »on the  copy of the copy of the copy… and the easy way out«.

Originality per se does not exist (my personal view). It is after all a social phenomenon that is beyond the control of marketers. Auhenticity is always a post-hoc judgement. By the way, I prefer this term to originality, and have my doubts whether those two can be considered synonyma (but I won’t develop on this here). We all in our marketing offices may try hard to avchieve authenticity/originality and shall never know whether we succeed.
Our experience with biestmilch teaches us a tough lesson in this respect.
Authenticity, yes, I think we can contribute a lot to this issue. We try to create a market since 7 years, we invented a substance many have already tried to launch without success, because we reinvented its positioning. Even though the substance is the most unique I ever met, an original really, it does it help. Thus, authenticity is one story, acceptance yet another.
After all these years of hard grassroot work I came to the conclusion that it is best to do a good job by not making to many irresponsible concessions, by disregarding marketing textbooks and senior advisers… go for your convictions… be serious, honest, but don’t take yourself too serious, have a good sense of humor… and very important don’t loose your ability of self-criticism and self-mockery!

And beware of big words like authenticity and originality… they have this touch of emptiness and hollowness so fast…