The Certification of Authenticity: Effects on product perception

Abstract

Authenticity is a concept of increasing importance in a postmodern world. A review of key literature reveals that authenticity is a difficult to define multidimensional construct. In the marketing context, authenticity can be defined as an assessment of the genuineness of a product or experience made by an evaluator in a particular context (Grayson and Martinec 2004). As such, it represents the interaction of an object, place, and person. However, authenticity has strong credence attributes: it is often difficult or impossible to demonstrate physical properties which indicate authenticity. Consequently, certification - the process of adding credible, salient, and visible information to frame customer perceptions of authenticity - may be a critical cue for evaluations. This research assessed the effects of certification of authenticity on product perceptions. The research context examined the effectiveness of multiple certification marks on the perceived authenticity of a Maori greenstone (pounamu) carving, an indigenous art form well-known in New Zealand. Study 1 used a traditional fishhook-style carving as a stimulus in a 2 (age: old, new) x 4 (certification: toi iho (TM), New Zealand Made, Made with Care, no certification) full factorial design. Study 2 used a less-traditional silver fern carving design in a 2 (Age: old, new) x 3 (certification: toi iho (TM), New Zealand Made, no certification) x 2 (social identity primed and unprimed) full factorial design. Multiple dependent variables were measured on interval scales, including the perceived level of authenticity, liking, quality, perceived value, and purchase intent. Most prior work on authenticity considers the context-specific antecedents of authenticity, which are generally inherent attributes of the product of category under study. This research took a broader approach, with the aim of greater generalisability. Four general antecedents of authenticity were modelled. Two object related factors, perceived age of the object and certification, were included. Two individual factors were also considered, social identity and perceived expertise with the category. A series of 11 hypotheses was tested, predominantly using ordinary least squares regression. The four proposed general antecedents were regressed on authenticity, and social identity, object age, and certification were found to have significant direct effects on authenticity. It was also found that priming social identity had a significant effect on perceptions of authenticity of an object which is consistent with the respondent's social identity. Perceived expertise with the product category had a significant effect when entered as the last regressor in a parsimonious model, but dropped to insignificance when included in larger models. Authenticity was treated as a mediator between the antecedents and a range of outcome variables including liking, perceived quality, perceived value, and purchase intent. Findings confirm that authenticity partially mediates the effect of the antecedents on the outcome variables. Authenticity had a strong direct effect on the outcome variables (liking, perceived quality, perceived value, and purchase intent), and this direct effect exceeded the direct effects of the antecedents (social identity, product age, category expertise, and certification) on the outcome variables. Three potential interaction effects were tested: social identity x certification, perceived object age x certification, and category expertise x certification. The effects of age x certification were significant for toi iho (TM) certification only, and category expertise x certification was significant for the New Zealand Made certification only. The effects of social identity x certification were not significant. Prior research in many fields has found that authenticity is an important, even central, concept in how people perceive their own identities. A range of work also indicates that individuals often seek personal authenticity through specialised types of consumption. Overall, this study found that perceived authenticity is an important precursor to product perceptions, and it is linked with greater liking, value perceptions, quality perceptions and likelihood to purchase. Certification was also found to significantly strengthen perceptions of product authenticity. Putting these elements together, it is clear that perceptions of product authenticity can be increased through adding, manipulating, or communicating the antecedents of age and certification. Perceived authenticity can also be affected by priming perceptions of social identity. Greater perceived authenticity leads, in turn, to more positive affect towards the product. This should result in positive commercial outcomes such as greater purchase, loyalty, or market share. Given the philosophical centrality of the authenticity concept to individual self-perception, it is only a short leap to suggest that more authentic products potentially have a strong psychological resonance with consumers.