AUTHENTIC WORLD
WELCOME TO
From the perspective of Chinese Gen-Z Girls
WE ARE GLAD YOU FOUND THE ENTRY
Have you heard of the magic effects of Brand Authenticity?
Have you been confused with lots of different views and generalized points of Authenticity?
Obviously, authenticity means different things to different people.
FROM HERE, YOU ARE GOING ON A JOURNEY OF
AUTHENTICITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CHINESE GEN-Z GIRLS
Suggested Journey Guidance:
INTRODUCTION - HISTORY (Literature Review) - RULES (Methodology)
- SOUVENIR (Findings) - EXIT (Final Words)
Hopefully,
you can complete the journey in the most relaxed state
and take our souvenirs.
In addition, we look forward to your authentic thoughts!
Imagine you watching a stand-up comedy, and you are laughing excitedly and shouting “all too real”;
Imagine you dating at a restaurant, and after some drinks, you feel that he/she begin to share private secrets to you. At that moment you feel that your conversation from small talk moves to real talk. You sensitively feel some certain emotional connections between each other and then you hold him / her hand;
Imagine the first time you see what your leader whom you think is omnipotent looks like in normal life, and you are surprised that he/she is a romantic husband/wife in privacy time. At the moment, you perceive that this / her impression becomes more real and vivid in your heart;
Imagine you watching the Tik Tok video, and you are excited because the beautiful influencer closes the filters —— you are moved by the courage and confidence of this girl, and then press the follow button;
…
Authenticity has a palpable feel to it,
a stripping away of pretense that commands attention in any environment
(Holtz & Havens, 2009).
As Goldman and Kernis argued, despite maybe being brought up in a world where we are taught our own needs are less important than those of others, humans have an undeniable desire to be themselves. Where there is great incongruence between our concept of self and the world we live in, individuals feel a deep sense of unease and it is this unease that indicates that authenticity is likely to be an important concept for us to understand and be curious about (Rogers, 1961 as cited in Goldman and Kernis, 2002).
The concept of true self became popular when introduced to the field of psychotherapy by Donald Winnicott in the 1960s. It describes “a sense of self-based on spontaneous authentic experience and a feeling of being alive” (Akhtar 2009)
It has to be committed that authenticity is an essential human aspiration (Bruhn et al., 2012). Authenticity is extensively studied in psychology, philosophy, economics, and other fields.
With plenty of misinformation flooding the network, in 2016, Oxford English Dictionary chose post-truth as the word of the year. The topic of trust began to be more and more popular. At the same time, Consumers seek out authenticity to cope with the unauthentic nature of contemporary life (Cohen, 1988; Leigh et al., 2006)
In the field of marketing,
authenticity is also becoming more and more valued.
“An authentic brand is more likely to be seen as a choice brand.”
(Napoli et al., 2014; Fritz et al., 2017).
"Successful brands are based on authenticity"
(Arruda, 2016).
"Authenticity is the critical element of contemporary marketing that determines a brand’s success.”
(Brown et al., 2003; Bruhn et al., 2012).
“Authenticity has overtaken quality as the prevailing purchasing criterion."
(Gilmore & Pine, 2007)
“Through the consumption of authentic brands, consumers define their own (and authentic) identity (Firat and Venkatesh, 1995), express their morals and principles.”
(Beverland and Farrelly, 2010)
“Authenticity helps to create strong consumer–brand connections.”
(Beverland, 2006; Morhart et al., 2015)
Inevitably, authenticity has become a popular word in marketing. However, the concept of brand authenticity remains chaotic and unified (Please see details in Literature Review).
In addition, most marketing sites in Google show that authenticity is important, and emphasize that brands need to keep being honest, real, open attitude and other general points of view, but rarely clearly shows the specific concept from the perspective of consumers, the related reasons, and the inspirations for brands.
By analyzing the existing authenticity-related literature of scholars, I have learned that authenticity is subjective.
Authenticity is constructed as being influenced by
consumers’ interpretation, knowledge, interest, and personal tastes
(Grazian, 2003)
Thus, I decided to avoid generalized research, and focus on a particular consumer group.
As a Chinese girl, I chose the region and the consumer group I realized most to study Authenticity from the perspective of Chinese generation-Z girls.
--Why did I choose girls?
In recent years, the spread of the marketing concept of female consumerism and the rapid development of gender equality concepts have greatly affected values of the Chinese girls. Therefore, to make it be more rigorous. Therefore, to make it be more rigorous, I only chose a girl group for this project.
-Why did I choose Generation--Z group？
Lots of Literature shows the relevance between Generation-Zers and authenticity. For example, data reported by CNBC (2018)shows that authenticity is an important value for Gen--Zers, with “67 percent of those surveyed agreeing that ‘being true to their values and beliefs makes a person cool.”
Through an in-depth survey of the Chinese gen-z girl group, I found an interesting phenomenon:
For this group, they are more likely to think that
young people are more authentic and trust young people more,
rather than trusting elders.
Paradoxically, in the traditional Chinese culture, there is an important concept of respecting the elders. In another word, elders acted as opinion leaders because of more experience and knowledge in the past.
What factors make young people not trust “the traditional opinion leaders” anymore? Brands and media also act as opinion leaders of consumers to some extent, so analysis of this interesting phenomenon must mean a lot to the market industry.
From here, you will approach the inner thoughts of Chinese gen-z girls and realize everything related to authenticity.