IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/irpnmk/v14y2017i3d10.1007_s12208-017-0177-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Brand authenticity, its conceptualization, and its relevance to nonprofit marketing

Author

Listed:
  • Walter Wymer

    (University of Lethbridge)

  • Mohammad Muzahid Akbar

    (University of Guelph)

Abstract

The conceptualization of brand authenticity as evidenced from the extent literature is examined for validity issues. The body of literature on brand authenticity has produced a fragmented and varied theory of the construct and the value of knowledge produced from this research stream is questionable. This is problematic for researchers working on nonprofit marketing topics that investigate brand authenticity as a construct of interest. In the literature, brand authenticity has been defined in a variety of ways, typically as a multidimensional construct. As many as 40 different dimensions were found in our literature search. At the conclusion of our analysis, we present brand authenticity as a unidimensional construct that refers to the degree to which a brand object is perceived to be the quintessential exemplar of its type. This definition of brand authenticity is most consistent with the denotative meaning of the term and is suited to all types of brand objects including nonprofit organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Walter Wymer & Mohammad Muzahid Akbar, 2017. "Brand authenticity, its conceptualization, and its relevance to nonprofit marketing," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(3), pages 359-374, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:irpnmk:v:14:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s12208-017-0177-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s12208-017-0177-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12208-017-0177-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12208-017-0177-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Géraldine Michel & Sophie Rieunier, 2012. "Nonprofit brand image and typicality influences on charitable giving," Post-Print halshs-01887007, HAL.
    2. Michael B. Beverland, 2005. "Crafting Brand Authenticity: The Case of Luxury Wines," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 1003-1029, July.
    3. Michael Beverland, 2009. "Building Brand Authenticity," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-25080-2.
    4. Eggers, Fabian & O’Dwyer, Michele & Kraus, Sascha & Vallaster, Christine & Güldenberg, Stefan, 2013. "The impact of brand authenticity on brand trust and SME growth: A CEO perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 340-348.
    5. Napoli, Julie & Dickinson, Sonia J. & Beverland, Michael B. & Farrelly, Francis, 2014. "Measuring consumer-based brand authenticity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1090-1098.
    6. Michel, Géraldine & Rieunier, Sophie, 2012. "Nonprofit brand image and typicality influences on charitable giving," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 701-707.
    7. Beverland, Michael, 2006. "The 'real thing': Branding authenticity in the luxury wine trade," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 251-258, February.
    8. Richard A. Peterson, 2005. "In Search of Authenticity," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 1083-1098, July.
    9. Holt, Douglas B, 2002. "Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(1), pages 70-90, June.
    10. Walter Wymer, 2013. "The Influence of Marketing Scholarship’s Legacy on Nonprofit Marketing," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-17, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adnan Zogaj & Dieter K. Tscheulin & Jörg Lindenmeier & Stephan Olk, 2021. "Linking actual self-congruence, ideal self-congruence, and functional congruence to donor loyalty: the moderating role of issue involvement," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(3), pages 379-400, April.
    2. Zoe Lee & Amanda Spry & Yuksel Ekinci & Jessica Vredenburg, 2024. "From warmth to warrior: impacts of non-profit brand activism on brand bravery, brand hypocrisy and brand equity," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(2), pages 193-211, March.
    3. Ronald Conlin & Steven Bauer, 2022. "Examining the impact of differing guilt advertising appeals among the Generation Z cohort," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(2), pages 289-308, June.
    4. Fatemeh Maleki & Seyed Mohsen Hosseini, 2020. "Charity donation intention via m-payment apps: donor-related, m-payment system-related, or charity brand-related factors, which one is overkill?," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 17(4), pages 409-443, December.
    5. Walter Wymer, 2021. "Nonprofit marketing research: developing ideas for new studies," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(7), pages 1-14, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vikas Arya & Hemraj Verma & Deepa Sethi & Rajat Agarwal, 2019. "Brand Authenticity and Brand Attachment: How Online Communities Built on Social Networking Vehicles Moderate the Consumers’ Brand Attachment," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 8(2), pages 87-103, July.
    2. Fabian Bartsch & Katharina Petra Zeugner-Roth & Constantine S. Katsikeas, 2022. "Consumer authenticity seeking: conceptualization, measurement, and contingent effects," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 296-323, March.
    3. Susan Standing & Craig Standing, 2019. "Innovating Authentically: Cultural Differentiation in the Animation Sector," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 32(5), pages 557-571, October.
    4. Amélie Guèvremont & Bianca Grohmann, 2018. "Does brand authenticity alleviate the effect of brand scandals?," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 322-336, July.
    5. Alhouti, Sarah & Johnson, Catherine M. & Holloway, Betsy Bugg, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility authenticity: Investigating its antecedents and outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 1242-1249.
    6. Mohammad Muzahid Akbar & Walter Wymer, 2017. "Refining the conceptualization of Brand Authenticity," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 14-32, January.
    7. Hyun, Hyowon & Park, JungKun & Hong, Eunpyo, 2024. "Enhancing brand equity through multidimensional brand authenticity in the fashion retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Eggers, Fabian & O’Dwyer, Michele & Kraus, Sascha & Vallaster, Christine & Güldenberg, Stefan, 2013. "The impact of brand authenticity on brand trust and SME growth: A CEO perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 340-348.
    9. Napoli, Julie & Dickinson, Sonia J. & Beverland, Michael B. & Farrelly, Francis, 2014. "Measuring consumer-based brand authenticity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 1090-1098.
    10. Nevena Radoynovska & Brayden G. King, 2019. "To Whom Are You True? Audience Perceptions of Authenticity in Nascent Crowdfunding Ventures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 781-802, July.
    11. Julie Guidry Moulard & Randle D. Raggio & Judith Anne Garretson Folse, 2021. "Disentangling the meanings of brand authenticity: The entity-referent correspondence framework of authenticity," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 96-118, January.
    12. Per Kristav & Izabelle Bäckström & Axel Nordin & Anders Warell & Olaf Diegel, 2018. "A common assumption in product value literature is that authenticity is what contemporary consumers value the most. However, as this paper illustrates, the meaning of authenticity is unclear, and the ," Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 2(8), pages 46-65.
    13. Cuesta-Valiño, Pedro & Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Pablo & García-Henche, Blanca, 2022. "Word of mouth and digitalization in small retailers: Tradition, authenticity, and change," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    14. Davis, Robert & Sheriff, Kevin & Owen, Kim, 2019. "Conceptualising and measuring consumer authenticity online," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 17-31.
    15. Garner, Benjamin & Hollenbeck, Candice R., 2023. "The role of natural scarcity in creating impressions of authenticity at the Farmers’ market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    16. Brian ‘t Hart & Ian Phau, 2022. "Conceptualising attitudes towards brand genuinuity: scale development and validation," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(4), pages 327-340, July.
    17. Balázs Kovács & Glenn R. Carroll & David W. Lehman, 2014. "Authenticity and Consumer Value Ratings: Empirical Tests from the Restaurant Domain," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 458-478, April.
    18. Robert Zniva & Wolfgang J. Weitzl & Christina Lindmoser, 2023. "Be constantly different! How to manage influencer authenticity," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1485-1514, September.
    19. Rose, Gregory M. & Merchant, Altaf & Orth, Ulrich R. & Horstmann, Florian, 2016. "Emphasizing brand heritage: Does it work? And how?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 936-943.
    20. Joo, Soyoung & Miller, Elizabeth G. & Fink, Janet S., 2019. "Consumer evaluations of CSR authenticity: Development and validation of a multidimensional CSR authenticity scale," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 236-249.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:irpnmk:v:14:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s12208-017-0177-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.