( CNN ) Hillary Clinton worked hard last week to put the `` dead end '' sign on the State Department email story by announcing there was nothing to find . But in her rush to control the narrative , Clinton may have ( once again ) missed the bigger picture : In politics as much as in business , authenticity matters . Her press conference had the familiar ring of a controlled performance -- the carefully parsed explanation , the combative posture -- that stretched our belief that what she 's telling us is really the whole story . People wonder : Is she playing it straight with us ? Why the nagging suspicion that Brand Hillary does not include bringing to the public table who she really is ? As the author Joe McGinniss reported in his classic book on the 1968 Nixon campaign , `` The Selling of a President , '' political consultants long ago began marketing candidates like bars of soap . The practice has accelerated since the '60s as campaigns have concluded that political brands face the same tests among voters that consumer brands do among customers . And among consumers today , authenticity means more to success than at any other time in the history of brands . The desire for authenticity is a tangible driver of revenue for brands . Increasingly , people want to give their money to brands -- political as well as commercial -- that have a set of values they can also buy into . As author James H. Gilmore told The New York Times , a sense of authenticity reinforces trust in what is real `` in an increasingly staged , contrived and mediated world . '' A recent global study found that 63 % of consumers would buy a brand they perceive as authentic over its competitors , and more than 60 % would recommend an organization they perceive to be authentic . Ignoring the importance of authenticity to voters is a significant risk , as both Mitt Romney and Al Gore learned too late . And they were running in a perceptual environment more forgiving than today 's . Voters easily identified the space between who these candidates really were and how they wanted us to perceive them . Romney , the successful entrepreneur and moderate politician , struggled to seem ordinary and `` severely conservative , '' while Gore was perceived as having such an overblown sense of himself that the claim of having invented the Internet stuck to him like mud , even though he 'd never said it . The two shared what will likely also be Clinton 's destiny : winning a party nomination by default as there were few compelling alternatives . For Clinton , an uncontested rise to the Democratic nomination could mislead her campaign into believing that she does n't have a problem with authenticity . She does , especially among Independents and Republicans . To be fair , Clinton 's appeal as potentially the first woman to reach the White House makes her seem virtually bulletproof among certain voting groups . A recent Gallup Poll shows `` first female '' status as the `` best thing about a Hillary Clinton presidency , '' leading the positives mentioned by 30 % of Democrats and 17 % of Independents . But the next-closest best thing about Clinton is a long way off : Her experience is mentioned by only 16 % of Democrats and 8 % of Independents . A fledgling campaign apparatus , with powerful political recruits like John Podesta and Robby Mook and marquee brand wizards from Coca-Cola and Microsoft , might want to be looking hard at the dangerously lukewarm voter sentiment about experience and suitability that is lingering just beneath the surface of the `` first female president '' juggernaut . Part of the heightened danger coming out of her press conference lies among millennials , who will be a critical voting group for Democrats in the 2016 presidential election . And authenticity is of paramount importance to millennials in how they relate to everything in their lives , including politicians . As one commenter on a MediaPost article on millennials put it , `` If brands ca n't be authentic Millennials will call them on it . Want to win our hearts ? A little self-deprecation and humility never hurt . '' Forty percent of millennials in the U.S. admit to full-blown cynicism about the way they are approached by brands of all kinds . According to the MediaPost article , authenticity and the allied trait of trustworthiness are two of the top brand attributes millennials look for before they make a decision to hand over their money and , one could argue by extension , their vote . These days , too , it 's trickier than ever for brands to stay in step with the conversations that move people to make judgments . Whether they 're consumers or voters , people are more in tune with each other than at any other time in human history . They can gang up more easily to support or reject a person , an idea , and , yes , a company , brand or politician . Brands are left on the outside looking in , puzzling out how to insert themselves into a meaningful relationship with constituents who can turn on them at any second . This trend of demanding more authenticity from brands they invest in , and rewarding brands for it , has been accelerating with consumers across the U.S. over the course of the very same seven years since Clinton last ran for president . Since consumers are also voters , it stands to reason that any political brand -- including Hillary Clinton -- should look even more seriously today at how to increase its value by focusing on perceptions of its authenticity .
Martha Pease : Hillary Clinton struggled the '60s to put the email story behind her . Pease : Consumers are increasingly valuing brands perceived as authentic . Does the Clinton brand qualify ?