The Path from Consumer-Based Brand Authenticity to Consumer-Based Brand Equity: The Mediating Role of Brand Identity

Consumer behavior scholars are progressively stressing the importance of consumer-based brand authenticity (CBBA) and consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) to better understand the role of authenticity in increasing a brand’s value. However, the relationship between such two constructs has received scarce attention. To fill this gap, the present study builds on a social identity perspective of customer-brand relationship by hypothesizing brand identity as a mediating variable between CBBA and CBBE. Bootstrapped mediation analysis was used on a sample of 536 Italian consumers of Coca Cola. The results confirm the proposed mediating effect and provide both theoretical and practical implications to brand strategists, along with interesting avenues for future research.