Rendering Authenticity Part Three

Greetings from Boston on a snowy Friday afternoon.

The authors of Authenticity now turn their attention to Exceptional Authenticity. Now we are talking since this section talks about the delivery of service, which in business I feel is critical and often neglected. In talking about Ian Schrager's conversion from hotels to luxury living, he mentions that exceptional(ie different than the norm for the better), he classifies his property having "intimacy, authenticity and personalization-the antithesis of the mass market". Looking at the website, it's already sold out so certainly someone agrees....

Schrager continues, "the best formula is no formula". Hmmm...now I have always thought that building events is a mixture of science and art. In my mind, the three levels of event performance are:

1) Stablizing a bad event or disfunctional situation into one where it is a least competitive;
2) Making that event a 'have to attend'(which doesn't mean it's pleasant just that you have to go); and

3) Events as experiencial and possibly transformational(ie you not only have to attend, but WANT to attend).

I would classify the first two as science and the third as art, that is the first two can be done with smart experienced people and a formula, but transformational events require art, where you have all the elements of the first two, but the formula is secondary to the creativity and value off going 'off road'. I was speaking with Kerry Smith(CEO of Red 7 Media) about this subject this week. Kerry has the fortune of running The Experiencial Marketing Summit, so you can imagine he has to pull off the magic where the event itself is a case study for the industry. He certainly gets it.

In the hotels business, do staff genuinely care for guests? I hope so, for their sake. I am seeing so many references to authenticity in articles and in the supermarket it seems though it's the latest buzzword, maybe backed up by nothing but let's hope not...

So Exceptional Authenticity relates to customized products and services that match the customers self-image or how they put it "shape your offerings around unique tastes or unusual preferences of customers". In my case, I like to be served, but I also like the person serving me to be calibrated so they know, as in the case of a waiter at a restuarant, when to interrupt a conversation I might be having, and when to stand back. I do not need to report on the quality of a three course meal for instance. The book relates the motto of Ritz-Carlton Hotels which is "Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen". If you see yourself as a lady or gentleman then you will feel right at home(if not with a lighter wallet) at a Ritz-Carlton hotel.

The next interesting thought is that 'foreign trumps the familiar when rendering authenticity' ie that L'Occitane will always trump Bath and Bodyworks because L'Occitane is French and Bath and Bodyworks is not. I'm not ashamed to say I own products from both(and buy products from both) but am more excited about visiting a pleasantly dim and brown ambiance than a highly lit trip to the circus, Sorry B and BW...

Enjoy the weekend.