Achieving alignment for corporate brand success: The consumer quest for authenticity and heritage

English

The aim of this paper is to extend the authenticity research towards further mass markets and to explore the effects of consumers’ authenticity perceptions on brand image, trust, loyalty and premium price. To achieve these purposes, the authors combined two existing authenticity scales (Bruhn et al., 2012; Napoli et al., 2014) applying them to four different Italian brands, from the manufacturing sector (Peroni and Vespa) and from the service sector (Enel and Cinecittà Studios). Additionally, to gain explorative insights about the alignment between consumers’ and managers’ perceptions of authenticity, in-depth interviews with senior management have been conducted. Results confirm that authenticity has a great impact on brand trust and this outcome is verified in all the case studies. On the contrary, brand authenticity doesn’t seem to predict the acceptance of a premium price (this is not consistent with the previous studies; i.e., Beverland, 2006). Nevertheless, it’s coherent with the managers’ perspective.