How consumers react when they feel 'betrayed' by a brand

""Authenticity is defined within the context of the brand-consumer relationship," Hoppner says. In other words, it's in the eye of the beholder-or in this case, the consumer. Inauthenticity occurs when a brand behaves in a way that appears to go against its perceived core values, or the consumer's baseline expectations for that particular brand. "This kind of inauthenticity causes problems for brand managers because for each person it's a little bit different, and that makes it really hard to navigate," Hoppner says."

"In their recently published paper in the Journal of Product & Brand Management, Hoppner and Abratt trace the emotional cause-and-effect of brand inauthenticity, offering rare insight into this slippery phenomenon. The paper was co-authored by Ryan White of Winona State University. The researchers recruited 218 survey participants using Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. Respondents were asked to write about an experience of brand inauthenticity and answer a series of questions about that experience and steps they took afterward. The results were analyzed in light of concepts drawn from psychological research, such as appraisal theory and balance theory."

Authenticity depends on the brand-consumer relationship and is determined by individual consumer perceptions of core values and expectations. Inauthenticity occurs when brand behavior appears to contradict those perceived values. Encounters with inauthentic brands elicit emotional reactions comparable to discovering another person's insincerity, producing complex feelings and responses. A survey of 218 participants collected written accounts of brand inauthenticity and subsequent actions. Reported instances involved 156 different brands across sectors, indicating that perceived inauthenticity affects large and small brands alike. Responses were interpreted using psychological frameworks such as appraisal theory and balance theory, showing managerial challenges due to varying individual judgments of authenticity.

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