Enhancing authenticity for beauty brands: The role of message framing and product type on consumer perception

Abstract

While brand authenticity is emerging as a driving force influencing consumer behavior (Gilmore & Pine, 2007), beauty brands still struggle with perceptions of inauthenticity (Smith et al., 2021). This study aims to understand how beauty brands should frame their product offerings to increase brand authenticity and explores different message strategies to different beauty product types to examine its effect on brand authenticity. A 2 (message frame: Self-enhancement vs. Self-expression) X 2 (product type: Conventional vs. Natural) between-subjects randomized experimental study was conducted to address the proposed hypotheses. A total of 204 participants were recruited for this study. The study found significant main effects of message framing on brand authenticity, indicating that a self-expression framing was more efficient in increasing perceptions of brand authenticity. Moreover, significant main effects were found between product type and brand authenticity, whereas brands offering conventional brands were perceived as more authentic. The study also revealed interaction effects between message framing and product type on perceived brand authenticity. Specifically, brand authenticity was increased when natural products were framed as self-expression and conventional products were framed as self-enhancement. The findings further indicated that this relationship was moderated by health consciousness and self-authenticity, such that consumers with a higher health consciousness and a higher self-authenticity showed higher perceived authenticity for brands offering natural products, and lower perceived authenticity for brands offering conventional products. Lastly, results showed that brand authenticity plays a mediating role in the relationship between message framing and product type on behavioral outcomes, such that higher perceived brand authenticity led to higher purchase intention and word-of-mouth. Based on these results, I derive several theoretical and practical implications that are valuable for both academicians and practitioners.