Does It Pay to Be Real? Understanding Authenticity in TV Advertising

Maren Becker*, Nico Wiegand, Werner J. Reinartz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Marketing managers and creatives alike believe that authenticity is an essential element for effective advertising. However, no common understanding of authenticity in advertising exists, and empirical knowledge about its impact on consumer behavior is limited. In this study, the authors use a comprehensive literature review and qualitative studies to identify four dimensions of authenticity in an advertising context. By examining 323 television ads across 67 brands and four years, they investigate these dimensions’ effects on the sales performance of advertised products. Because the impact of authenticity may depend on brand or product characteristics, the authors also analyze how these effects vary with brand size or across hedonic and utilitarian products. The results suggest that authenticity influences consumer behavior in a more nuanced manner than previously recognized. For instance, whereas an ad congruent with the brand’s essence has a positive effect on sales in most cases, an overly honest advertising message can actually hurt performance; the latter is true especially for hedonic products, for which consumers rely more on subjective information when making purchase decisions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24-50
Number of pages27
JournalJournal of Marketing
Volume83
Issue number1
Early online date4 Dec 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2019

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was partly funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

FundersFunder number
California Department of Fish and Game
Pennsylvania State University
University of Virginia
University of Illinois
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

    Keywords

    • advertising content
    • advertising cues
    • advertising effectiveness
    • authenticity

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