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Facets of authenticity accounting for benefi ts that oppose marketing criticism points
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Prior research points out the emerging phenomenon of consumer resistance in terms of resistance
towards the marketing discipline. At the same time, extant literature suggests the increasing
importance of authenticity in marketing.
This study investigates the research question whether and by which means authenticity in
marketing can be a response to...
Citations
... Few studies have addressed the relationship between consumer resistance and authenticity. Marks and Prinsloo (2015) sought to understand conceptually if and how authenticity in marketing can be an answer to consumer resistance; Hutchinson (2019), in the field of digital activism, analyzed how influencers manage to stay visible on social networks, considering their algorithms; and observed how the developed persona strengthens authenticity in the activism proposed by a celebrity. However, none of these studies consider discursive strategies for reaching authenticity in the field of consumer resistance. ...
Objetivo do estudo. Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar como influenciadores da dieta low-carb buscam autenticidade em seus discursos de imagens produzidos no Instagram.Metodologia/abordagem. A pesquisa foi conduzida sob a abordagem qualitativa e abdutiva. Coletaram-se 240 postagens de 6 influenciadores que divulgam a filosofia low-carb. As imagens e suas legendas foram analisadas, codificadas em 483 códigos, elevadas a categorias superiores, que formaram 7 microdiscursos e 3 macrodiscursos, a partir dos quais a análise de autenticidade foi feita.Principais resultados. As postagens dos influenciadores, conforme macrodiscurso adotado, têm características distintas. A concepção low-carb é um discurso emancipatório; a condução low-carb, um discurso mercadológico; e a estratégia anti-low-carb, um discurso de resistência do consumidor.Contribuições teóricas/metodológicas. Os três macrodiscursos formam um modelo conceitual a partir do qual discursos afirmativos e de enfrentamento definem a autenticidade da filosofia low-carb. Foi possível desenhar o fluxo de racionalidade-encantamento-luta no qual se analisaram os riscos em que a autenticidade da filosofia low-carb incorre, em cada fase.Relevância/originalidade. O fluxo entre racionalidade, encantamento e luta representa um entrelaçado de diferentes abordagens teóricas que explicam a autenticidade, em relação ao objetivo de tornar a filosofia low-carb autêntica.Implicações para a gestão ou sociais. O trabalho ajuda a compreender discursos de influenciadores digitais, mostrando quando estes pendem para uma perspectiva mais estética ou voltada à saúde.
... Consumer demand for authenticity is natural and inevitable. Authenticity is essential for consumers because it reduces the complexity of globalization, minimizes risk, advocates for loss of trust in brands, homogenization, and deals with brands with similar and ubiquitous products (Christine & Prinsloo, 2015). In addition, the critical attitude, cynicism, skepticism, and consumer distrust of the brand raises consumer resistance. ...
... In addition, the critical attitude, cynicism, skepticism, and consumer distrust of the brand raises consumer resistance. Resistant consumers tend to be sensitive to authenticity and understand which brands are authentic (Christine & Prinsloo, 2015). ...
This study investigates the effect of brand authenticity as a mediator of self-congruity relationships on coffee shops consumer loyalty. Data obtained by cross-sectional method with convenience/accidental sampling through an online survey platform. Four hundred thirty responses (44.4% male) were collected from consumers of various brands of coffee shops located in DIY. The mediation effect hypothesis was tested using a bootstrapping approach and additional analysis of the causal step approach using the Sobel test. Self-congruity and brand authenticity have a positive effect on brand loyalty. There is a partial mediating effect produced by brand authenticity on the relationship between self-congruity and brand loyalty. Consumers' consideration to be loyal to the brand is not only based on the suitability of their self-concept with the brand image/brand users image (self-congruity), but also the brand's authenticity.
... It is generally agreed upon that consumers become increasingly critical towards advertisements and what is important to consumers changes accordingly. Marks and Prinsloo (2015) discusses consumer resistance in regard to authenticity and their arguments will be used in the analysis chapter to investigate the choices behind the marketing campaign #SingleNotSorry. ...
... When passing by the billboards on the street, critical consumers will make up their minds, whether they deem the advertisements credible or not. As discussed by Marks and Prinsloo (2015), credibility and authenticity are of increasing interest to the general consumer, therefore also businesses (Marks & Prinsloo, 2015, p. 17). Tinder has chosen to frame what can be referred to as ordinary, normal women on their billboards, which makes it easier for the target group to relate to the advertisement. ...
... Moreover, by listening to the needs of their crowculture, Tinder is embracing a whole new quality that is of increasing importance to critical consumers today, which is credibility and authenticity (Marks & Prinsloo, 2015). In this regard, it is of value to emphasize the metatheory guiding this paper, as the results presented are generated from research that has been uniquely interpreted by us as researchers. ...
A shifting attitude towards ‘dating’ has affected how companies today, that are associated with this topic, brand themselves. More specifically, this regards people who actively choose to be single and it reflects a society that is currently changing from conventional means. In society, being single has been looked upon as a temporary position rather than an active choice, and this has caused dating company Tinder to critically challenge this assumption.
Extant literature generally offers exhausted communication models to branding and marketing, but branding initiatives presented by Tinder may act as the frontrunner for how to apply newer branding theory to remain significant in a developing consumer-driven market. By incorporating cultural branding strategy, Tinder manages to extract consumer generated ideologies and use these in creating marketing content. Based on the marketing campaign #SingleNotSorry from 2018, this study investigates the research question of how Tinder and their campaign, by utilizing a current ideology of feminism and individualism, have been embraced and legitimized in society.
This study has mainly been conducted with literature by Susan Fournier (2008) (2011) and Douglas B. Holt (2002) (2016) and other researchers’ literature supporting the findings of this paper. Through qualitative research, conducted with a social constructionist viewpoint, the theory that assembles the analysis has been divided into two main parts. One part consists of a Foucauldian viewpoint upon discourse and the other concerns multimodality. These theories have permitted us to elaborate on their interplay, but at the same time explore differences between the two, hence providing reason for applying both.
The results illustrate that through social media and what comes with it, such as influencers, consumers have gained substantial power to guide the marketing content of companies dependent on creating cultural value for their respective target group(s). Consumers are more likely to respond to marketing with which they can relate and reflect themselves upon. These qualities are achieved by initiatives reflecting the literature of cultural branding which suggests building the core marketing content based on ideologies expressed by the consumer and presenting those through relatable objects. This shows how ideologies can be viewed as assets for companies when constructing meaningful marketing content with value to the consumer.
Furthermore, seen from the viewpoint of companies, this thesis argues for the value of keeping consumers at a distance from where their voices can be heard, and proposes how relationship-theory could be applied by companies to limit that distance.
... The interconnections of the effective market of ideas and brand commercialization in the products ought to expand advertising, country products, customer previous experience, brand authenticity and positive brand identity. (Marks &Prinsloo, 2015) investigated the influence of brand authenticity in marketing to determine the resistance of customers. From the study, it was evaluated that there was a significant influence of brand authenticity on the resistance of customers. ...
The main objective of the research is to illustrate the value in the developing world of researching and implementing quality brand authenticity with the moderating effect of entrepreneurial marketing. 1943 responses were collected using survey method and five-point self-administrated questionnaire from the luxury apparel industry of Karachi, Pakistan using purposive sampling technique. PLS-SEM was used for data analysis. Actual brand congruence showed a positive and significant effect brand authenticity and brand commercialization negatively impacts brand authenticity while brand nostalgia also positively impacts brand authenticity and entrepreneurial marketing also significantly impact brand authenticity, ideal brand congruence also has positive relationship with brand authenticity and social media engagement positively impact brand authenticity. Entrepreneurial marketing negatively moderate the relationship between ideal brand congruence and brand authenticity and moderate the relationship between social media but negatively moderates the relationship between brand commercialization moderate the relationship between brand nostalgia but insignificantly moderate the relationship between actual brand congruence and brand authenticity. It was found that having your content on these platforms is not what makes sales for you. Engagement is the secret to becoming a productive user of social media hence joining Q&A response sessions is a great way to give value to customers and make you a valuable brand.
... While this distances our descriptions from established theoretical frameworks for marketing, it is not a magic wand allowing us to sidestep the many issues raised in regards to semantically related concepts, most importantly that of authenticity. Authenticity has been proposed as a general solution to contemporary marketing and organizational problems (Gilmore and Pine 2007) or, more instrumentally, as a communication strategy for building positive perception of CSR (McShane and Cunningham 2012) and as a tool for overcoming consumer resistance (Marks and Prinsloo 2015). It has also been criticized as a deceptive instrument for exploitation (Wilson 2011) and intensifying employees' and customers' emotional labour (Fisher 2012). ...
In times of erosion and dissolution of social structures and institutions, described by Bauman (Ethics and Global Politics 5:49–56, 2012) as the interregnum, there arises both a need and a possibility of developing alternative approaches to the most fundamental organizational practices. Marketing, a simultaneously tremendously successful and much criticized sub-discipline and practice, is a prime candidate for such a redefinition. Potential prefigurations of future processes of organizing and institutionalizing can be found within dissenting organizations (Daskalaki in European Urban and Regional Studies 25:155–170, 2018), the alternative organizations built at the fringes of, and in opposition to, the mainstream businesses as reported by Parker et al. (The Routledge companion to alternative organization, Routledge, Oxford, 2014). In this paper, we present an exploration of the alternative yet already enacted practice we call earnest marketing. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a number of dissenting organizations in the United Kingdom and Poland, we focus on the radical reconstitution of marketing evidenced in their practice, defined by an attitude of earnestness and dedication to the dissemination and demonstration of their self-defined goodness: ideas and values. As organizations engage in earnest marketing, they also become receptive to reciprocal messages from their environments. We conclude by reflecting on the possibilities of a dissenting management model developing the principles of earnest marketing beyond disciplinary confines.
