Brand Authenticity and Brand Attachment: How Online Communities Built on Social Networking Vehicles Moderate the Consumers’ Brand Attachment

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse consumers’ attachment behaviour to a particular brand due to its perceived authenticity. The study aims to identify the relationship of brand authenticity with the consumers’ brand attachment behaviour in the presence of online brand communities (OBCs) built on social networking vehicles. The descriptive research was conducted on 354 Indian respondents and the findings were then analysed using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 24.0. The analysis revealed that consumers’ brand attachment is fairly very high when the brand is perceived as genuine and authentic. Further, the relationship between brand authenticity and consumers’ brand attachment behaviour is moderated by the presence of OBCs. Therefore, companies should be attentive towards developing an authentic product in order to catch the consumers’ buying inclination and should consider to have their presence on communities and forums over social networking sites. This article is novel in the sense that it provides an understanding about the impact of perceived brand authenticity on brand attachment behaviour. Authenticity of the product articulates the consumers’ desire to discover meaning and purpose in their lives and is a process of living out one’s set of strongly held personal attachment with the brand.