Authenticity: Further theoretical and practical development

The purpose of this study is to extend the understanding of the marketing concept of authenticity. This article answers the call for more empirical consumer-based research on authenticity, tests the transferability and comprehensiveness of existing factors of authenticity and proposes an alternative framework for empirical testing. Consumers perceptions of the authenticity of beer were collected in open-ended, qualitative interviews. Previous models of the attributes of authenticity discovered in research on the relatively less generalizable product markets of the ultra-premium wine industry and in tourist crafts did not adequately explain the authenticity of beer. Our findings therefore lead to a more generalizable framework of authenticity factors than these previous models. Alternative driving factors and their attributes are proposed, including the previously unidentified attribute of exclusivity. The concept of authenticity existing on a continuum is also proposed. An initial conceptual model of how these factors may interrelate to affect authenticity perceptions is then presented. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.