In The Practice Seth Godin contrasts Steely Dan with musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and Aretha Franklin:

“Steely Dan continues to sell records and stream near the top of their niche… they created and performed their work in a studio… and then spent months or years polishing the recordings to a bright sheen…

But do you know who else is still on the charts? Singers like Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and Aretha Franklin… [who] were manufacturing a sort of intimate authenticity, and viewed too much shine as a defect.”

Seth Godin, The Practice, 138. Polish Is Overrated

Seth is making a point about perfectionism and its relationship to shipping creative work, but that’s not what I want to talk about.

What I want to talk about is a word he chose, the word manufacturing.

Singers like Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and Aretha Franklin were manufacturing intimate authenticity.

When you saw Bruce Springsteen live, you wanted the authentic Bruce Springsteen experience. But it wasn’t authentic, it was manufactured. And that’s ok. In fact, we prefer it.

Bruce’s audience didn’t care if he’d been on tour for 60 days before he got to their city, that he was tired of sleeping on planes, tired of eating fast food. When he got on stage they expected him to manufacture the magic that they’d signed up to see, and it didn’t matter how he really felt.

Your customers want manufactured authenticity, not real authenticity. And that’s ok. In fact it’s great.

It’s great because if it’s manufactured, then it can be designed, and rehearsed, and repeated.

Bruce Springsteen became The Boss because he showed up over and over again and manufactured authenticity for his customers.

And now that we live in an experience economy, your customers expect you to do the same.