Rendering Authenticity and The Jam

Continuing my long drawn out reading of the book Authenticity, the authors talk about the most yearned for 'authentic experience' is one drawn from their own past, of times gone by. The rank order of things offered to customers are(from highest value to lowest):

Transformations
Experiences
Services
Goods
Commodities

A customer will pay highest for a transformation and lowest for a commodity, since the former is by definition highly customized for the 'buyer' while the latter is not. Because of the influence of institutions such as Wal-Mart and the Internet, there is a tendency to drag all good and services towards the Commodities side of the spectrum(lower price) forcing suppliers of all products to continue to prove the value of said products to preserve their prices.

To overlay the idea of authenticity on the products above(and here I quote verbatim from the book):


Commodities- Natural authenticity

People tend to perceive as authentic that which exists in its natural state in or of the earth, remaining untouched by human hands; not artificial or synthetic;

Goods-Original authenticity

People tend to perceive as authentic that which posesses originality in design, being the first of its kind, never seen before by human eyes; not a copy of imitation;

Services- Exceptional authenticity

People tend to perceive as authentic that which is done exceptionally well, executed individually and extraordinarily by someone demonstrating human care; not unfeelingly or disingenuously performed;

Experiences-Referential authenticity

People tend to perceive as authentic that which refers to some other context, drawing inspiration from human history, and tapping into our shared memories and longings; not derivative of trivial;

Transformations-Influencial authenticity

People tend to perceive as authentic that which exerts influence on other entities, calling human beings to a higher goal and providing a foretaste of a better way; not inconsequential or without meaning.

The authors then state that anything you feel is 'authentic' has one or more of the aspects above.

I guess the corollary is that an item which fails one of these criteria fails them all and thus is 'inauthentic'.

On another note, I found out that 2/3 of the band The Jam, is playing in New York next week. I'll be going, hoping to have at least an experience, if not a transformation. I'll let you know if it was authentic or not!

Enjoy the weekend.