Here's what the 2023 word of the year, 'authentic,' means for brands

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: Merriam-Webster’s word of the year was “authentic.” For their purposes, they were mostly thinking about it in the context of AI. What even is “real” anymore when you can fake anything anytime. But it’s also a word that gets bandied about a lot in brand circles. So what do people think of when they think of this word in a brand context?

What we found: We used IpsosFacto (our generative AI chatbot) to generate some possibilities, augmented that a bit and then asked the Consumer Tracker. People could choose up to three and the top choices were “Honest” (51%) and “Integrity” (40%) and there was a pretty steep fall-off from there. In the 20%s were “Transparent,” “Consistent,” and “Committed to quality.” Lower still on the list included “cares for consumers,” “uses all natural ingredients,” “takes care of employees,” and “cares about the environment.” One in ten listed “none of the above” or “other.” From a brand perspective being linked to “honest” and “integrity” is a pretty good place to be, neighboring the idea of trust, which is so important to reputation.

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Shopping continues to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels

Some of Americans' concerns about AI are waning

Americans say 2023 was a good year, and think 2024 will be even better

Americans still know and care deeply about the war between Israel and Hamas