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My daughter came home the other day with a high school dilemma.

Two of her friends had her in a quandary. Arthur told a story about something that happened during the lunch period involving him, Tammy and another girl, Cathy. When my daughter asked Tammy about the situation, she told a completely different tale. In fact, she said the incident never happened at all.

My daughter came home, wondering who was telling the truth. Then, without knowing it, she uttered some sage marketing advice. She said, “Well, since I don’t know if what they said was the truth, I’ll pay attention to how they behave.”

Tammy has a checkered past when it comes to telling the truth. Arthur, on the other hand, has always proved to be a man of his word. Case closed. Though she agreed that Arthur could be exaggerating, in the end she believed that the incident did occur.

Don’t dismiss this as just a high school drama. There’s a very clear message in it for anyone who’s crafting marketing messages.

All Talk Tammy: Your words are meaningless if you don’t live up to them. Actions will always trump pretty words.

And when Catalyst Cathy comes along and creates a crisis (whistle blower, product recall, employee strike, bad customer service experience, etc.), you’ve got real trouble.

Authentic Arthur: When you’ve earned a reputation for being authentic, it is like having a full bank account. If you have trouble, you can make a withdrawal and still have some left over.

How many marketers out there THINK that they’re an Arthur, but their consumers know them to be a Tammy?

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2009 Drew McLellan