We are living in an authenticity economy. Consumers have taken control of the conversation and, thanks to the internet and social media, can see for themselves what’s real and what isn’t. They can see when a business doesn’t keep its word, or when it’s being phony and simply doing and saying whatever they think consumers want. "You want blue? Sure, we’ve always believed in blue. Oh, you want green? That’s what we meant, green is what we believe.”

And why not? For decades, businesses have looked outside of themselves for their beliefs. They’ve spent incredible amounts of time and money paying so-called experts to ask consumers what their brand should stand for. Once they uncover an appealing space, they use loads of money and fancy marketing to try to get consumers to buy into it.

But that’s fake authenticity, and consumers are rejecting it. They reject it in business the very same way they reject it in politicians, the media, religion and many other institutions.

On the other hand, when consumers see a business with an authentic brand belief that they share — and the business reflects that belief in everything it does — they become loyalists, even evangelists. That's because consumers buy into belief, not pandering.

The Dyson Conviction

Take Dyson, for example, a brand that has used its belief in the power of great design to create better products of all sorts. Dyson doesn’t look to consumers for answers; it does what it believes and looks to consumers for advocacy. I know because I worked firsthand with James Dyson and got to understand his belief and see it in action. What I saw was a brand that authentically believed that brave design, combined with inventive engineering and constant improvement, can, and should, make things better. James didn’t spin anything; his company behaved with his belief and hoped people would come on board.

And come they do. They pay extraordinary amounts of money for a vacuum cleaner and other everyday products. And while it’s true that people are buying a great product, what they’re also doing is buying into Dyson.

James Dyson’s strong, consistent and clear belief has built an incredibly successful brand, not only in terms of economic success, but as an innovation juggernaut, disrupting and influencing categories and even entire industries. Dyson is unwavering in its commitment to its belief and that has created a fiercely loyal customer army as a result — an army that is willing to follow that belief into all sorts of products.