Every company begins with a sense of who they are. In the early stages this comes naturally because the founders are close to everything. They talk to customers directly, shape the product themselves and write most of the communication. The voice of the company feels instinctive because it reflects the people behind it.

As soon as growth arrives, that closeness shifts. Teams expand, responsibilities move around and the brand becomes something people refer to instead of something they naturally express. Authenticity often begins to thin out at this point. It doesn’t happen on purpose. It’s simply the result of more people contributing and the original clarity spreading thinner over time.

This is why authentic communication matters so much. A brand isn’t the colours or the font or the guidelines. It’s the feeling someone gets when they interact with you. It’s the impression left behind when the conversation is over. Jeff Bezos described a brand as what people say about you when you’re not in the room, which captures the idea well because it reminds you that a brand is shaped by behaviour, not by design tools.

Jeff Bezos on brand “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” This is from a talk Bezos gave at the 2009 “Brand You” conference

Why authenticity becomes harder and more important as you scale

Growth changes the rhythm of a business. Information starts moving through more layers. Decisions are shared across more people. Communication becomes something generated by teams rather than individuals. All of this is normal, but without care it can create distance from the customer.

You can see this in the research. In a global study by Edelman, 81 percent of consumers said they need to trust a brand before they will even consider buying from it. Trust is not a bonus. It is the filter. A separate report from Stackla found that 86 percent of people say authenticity influences which brands they support. These studies sit across different markets, yet both point to the same conclusion. People notice when a company still sounds like itself.

And growth shouldn’t make you cautious. It shouldn’t push you into safer or more generic language. Expanding your team or your market doesn’t mean you should lose the personality that helped people like you in the first place. It just means you need to articulate it more clearly and make sure it is shared across the business.

Using AI without losing the human voice

AI has changed how quickly content can be produced. The risk isn’t the speed. The risk is letting tools nudge you toward generic phrasing because it is easy. AI can help shape structure or lighten workloads, but it cannot define your beliefs or decide how you want customers to feel.

Writers like Simon Mainwaring have pointed out that the strongest brands act with clarity and transparency because trust depends on it. That thinking matters even more now. AI increases output. Authenticity is what stops that output from blending into everything else.

How to hold onto what makes you distinct

When we work with clients, this is why brand and communication is always part of our discovery phase. Before any campaigns or plans are created, we spend time understanding who they are, how they speak and what they want customers to experience. If this foundation is unclear, the marketing might be efficient, but it will not feel true to the company. And as the business grows, that drift becomes more noticeable to customers.

Keeping your brand intact at scale does not mean locking it away. It means helping people across the business understand what it should sound like in practice. Customer support, sales, product and leadership all shape the brand through the way they communicate. When teams share an understanding of the voice, the customer experiences a single identity instead of a patchwork of different tones.

The commercial side is just as strong. Research from HawkPartners shows that customers are willing to pay more to support brands they believe are genuine. A study published by UNSW BusinessThink found that authenticity and transparency influence loyalty more effectively than traditional persuasion tactics. These are not soft ideas. They are signals of how people choose who to trust.

Something to remember

As your business expands, the real question is whether people still recognise you when they hear you. If the voice that carried you in the early days is still present, just clearer and better supported, you are building a company that can grow without drifting from its core. Strong brands do not disappear as they scale. They become more themselves.

A practical checklist for growing companies

Below is a checklist you can use internally. This mirrors the work we do with clients when we build brand and communication foundations in discovery, and it also helps teams stay aligned as they grow.

Be clear on who your customer is and how they speak
Revisit this regularly. When teams lose sight of the customer, the brand voice becomes vague.
Review real communication inside the business
Look at emails, product updates, onboarding messages and support replies. These reveal your true brand far more accurately than any planned campaign.
Document how your brand behaves, not just how it looks
Your teams need examples of tone, phrasing and the type of honesty you expect in communication. Visual identity alone is not enough.
Use AI to support your voice, not to define it
AI can handle structure or first drafts, but the shaping, refining and intentions should always come from humans.
Create a simple, practical brand and comms guide
Nothing heavy. Just enough to help new hires understand how the company sounds and what matters in your communication.
Hold regular voice health checks
Set time aside once or twice a year to review whether you still sound like the company you set out to build.
Share wins and examples across teams
Show people real messages or moments where the brand voice came through strongly. It encourages consistency and pride.

The quiet power of brand authenticity