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Brand narratives are created to differentiate brands, and consumers base their assessments of a brand’s authenticity on this narrative. We propose that the default consumer position is to accept a brand’s narrative, and we find that consumers maintain belief in this narrative even when explicitly reminded that it is manufactured by firms with an underlying profit motive. Because belief seems to be the default position adopted by consumers, we investigate what factors act as disruptors to this default position, thereby reducing assessments of authenticity.

This research uses a series of studies to investigate when and why consumers view some brand stories as authentic and others less so. In addition, we examine the impact of changes to authenticity assessments on managerially important brand outcomes.

Only when one or more authenticity disruptors are present do consumers begin to question the authenticity of the brand narrative. Disruption occurs when the focal brand is perceived to be nakedly copying a competitor, or when there is a gross mismatch between the brand narrative and reality. In the presence of one or both of these disruptors, consumers judge brands to be less authentic, report lower identification, lower assessments of brand quality and social responsibility, and are less likely to join the brand’s community.

Creating compelling brand stories is an important aspect of any marketing manager’s job; after all, these narratives help drive sales. Care must be taken when crafting narratives however, since consumers use these as the basis of their authenticity assessments, and brands deemed inauthentic are penalized.

Purpose – Stemming from extant literature on consumer brand narratives and the rising quest for consumption authenticity, the chapter aims at merging these two streams of knowledge. How can brand authenticity be defined and narrated? To what extent do companies and consumers interact? What are the consequences for branding?

Methodology – The chapter is case-based, and illustrates the branding strategy of l’Occitane en Provence, a company producing toiletries with a strong Mediterranean rooting. Data were collected through multisited ethnographic fieldwork in Paris and Manosque, Haute Provence. Depth and short interviews with customers and managers of l’Occitane were complemented by extensive observation and secondary data. The comprehensive dataset was analyzed consistently with interpretive research tenets.

Findings – Data document (i) five dimensions of brand authenticity contextualized to l’Occitane Mediterranean brand; (ii) the different branding strategies made possible to companies by the varied combination of these five dimensions; and (iii) the distinct profiles of brand consumers according to the specific authentic narrative each of them is more receptive to.

Practical implications – Implications for authentic brand narratives are drawn. I argue that when companies adopt a narrative approach to branding they can establish a stronger dialogue with customers and defend their competitive advantage more effectively. Actually, each brand narrative cannot be easily imitated by competitors since its imitation would turn out as a fake, unauthentic tale for the market.

Originality of the chapter – The chapter contributes to the fields of branding and authenticity, by extending the notion and understanding of consumption authenticity to brands.

This study aims to investigate consumer perceptions of inauthenticity due to adulteration of a narrative brand ending by using the research context of the final season and ending of the television series, Game of Thrones.

Two data sets totalling 2,032 online comments detailing consumer reactions to the final season of Game of Thrones were analysed using thematic analysis and human interpretive analysis. The coding was an iterative and continuous process, and posts were returned to and re-examined to refine codes and groupings as the analysis progressed.

The results indicate consumers perceived the ending of the eighth and final season of the television series, Game of Thrones, did not meet their expectations and was not authentic due to rushed writing and illogical character and plot developments. Consumers judged this adulteration was so great that it was a moral violation and transgression. Consumers also sought to assign blame for the inauthenticity, which they attributed to the writers and showrunners, who became the subject of revenge behaviours.

This study indicates consumers of narrative brands, due to their strong emotional attachments to their characters and storyworlds, may perceive unexpected and extensive changes to them as moral violations and transgressions and thus inauthentic. Consumers establish the authenticity of a narrative brand by regularly scrutinising narrative and character development against their expectations as shaped by prior narrative content. Due to their emotional attachment, consumers may attempt to attribute blame for the inauthenticity. The findings have not been established in prior research, and inauthenticity in a narrative brand context is also explored for the first time.

This paper aims to demonstrate how consumer attachment to celebrity brands is driven by perceived narratives about the celebrity’s persona, which triggers communal (i.e. altruistic) relationship norms. The research investigates the differential role of narratives about celebrities’ personal vs professional lives in creating attachment and identifies and tests moderating effects of narrative characteristics including perceived source of fame, valence and authenticity.

Three online experiments tested the proposed direct, meditating and moderating relationships. Data was analyzed using mediation analysis and multiple ANOVAs.

The results suggest relationship norms that are more altruistic in nature fully mediate the relationship between narrative type and brand attachment. Additionally, personal narratives produce stronger attachment than professional narratives; the celebrity’s source of fame moderates narrative type and attachment; and on-brand narratives elicit higher attachment than off-brand narratives, even when these narratives are negative.

The authors offer recommendations for how marketers can shape celebrity brand narratives to build stronger consumer attachment. Notably, personal (vs professional) narratives are critical in building attachment, especially for celebrity brands that are perceived to have achieved their fame. Both positive and negative personal narratives can strengthen attachment for achieved celebrity brands, but only if they are on-brand with consumer expectations.

This research is an introductory examination of the fundamental theoretical process by which celebrity brand relationships develop from brand persona narratives and how characteristics of those narratives influence consumer-brand attachment.

With the rise of digital media and content marketing, business-to-business (B2B) technology firms increasingly use narratives in their marketing strategy. If research has studied the impact of narrative on audiences, the structuration of the narrative strategies is still an overlooked area. The purpose of this paper is to understand the structuration of narrative strategies.

Authors studied the cases of narratives on the Internet of Things produced by two leading technology firms, IBM and Cisco, between 2012 and 2016. Material includes advertising campaigns, blogs, written customer cases, white papers, public speeches and selling discourses.

The research highlights the importance of metanarratives as the core of the structuration of seemingly different contents. It also shows how firms tap into fundamental mythic archetypes and broader sociocultural narratives to try and legitimate the emerging technology. Finally, research also introduces the concept of transmedia strategy and illustrates its use by the two firms studied.

The results are based on only two cases of multinational firms, limiting the generalization of the findings.

The results of the research may encourage firms to use more narrative branding strategies. They also offer directions for the key elements to manage when elaborating a narrative strategy (defining key metanarratives, identifying and using broader sociocultural narratives, designing a transmedia strategy).

The paper is among the first to try to understand the structuration of narrative branding strategies. While exploratory, it contributes to research on B2B branding and digital branding by bringing the narrative into B2B branding research.

This study aims to contribute to research into narrative brands by investigating if the lack of closure in the ambiguous season two’s ending of the Australian television series, Wanted, constituted a brand transgression.

Comments on posts about Wanted from social media accounts associated with the series were downloaded and analysed using thematic analysis informed by non-participatory netnography.

Audiences found the ambiguous ending of Wanted season two disappointing and it did not fulfil implied promises and their expectations, which fits the description of a brand transgression, and so they engaged in behaviours indicative of a brand transgression such as spreading negative word of mouth online. The ambiguous ending could have been a cliff-hanger to lead into a third season that was not guaranteed when the final episode aired, or the ending for the entire series. Although a third season was eventually made and positively received by audiences, viewer numbers declined by nearly a third, illustrating the importance of brand management for narrative brands.

This research has implications for the creators of television series, particularly if they do not know if it will be renewed. Not providing audiences with their expected closure can constitute a brand transgression and damage the narrative brand’s residual brand equity and potential earnings from streaming or a revival at a later date.

Prior research has focused on audiences’ responses to definitive endings, rather than ambiguous endings, which is the focus of this research. Furthermore, narrative brands are still an under-researched context.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of gamifying brand storytelling on user immersion in the brand narrative, a concept referred to as “narrative transportation”. The aim is to comprehend how transportation influences users’ experience and their responses to the brand, with particular focus on brand attitude and WOM. The study also explores the role of interactivity in brand storytelling and its effects on transportation and user engagement.

Four experiments were conducted to sequentially test the proposed hypotheses. Each experiment involves ad hoc gamified brand stories for different product categories (wine, museum, glasses and frozen fruit).

Findings indicate that including gamification elements in brand stories heightens narrative transportation and enhances the information obtained by users as well as their entertainment. Users thus respond more positively to the brand in terms of attitude and WOM. The study also reveals that high levels of interactivity in the game may actually decrease narrative transportation in the story, although this is offset by the perception of greater entertainment.

This research contributes to current understanding of brand storytelling and its impact on branding. It highlights the importance of offering users a gamified experience that can provide them with information about the brand whilst also offering them entertainment. The results also hold implications for gamification literature by emphasizing the need to ensure a balance between game and story vis-à-vis enhancing the impact of gamified storytelling on brand response.

Storytelling-driven messaging for luxury hotels is a robust social media marketing strategy to boost electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) and induce visit intention. This paper focuses on individual-related characteristics related to imagery processing and explores their relationship with brand trust and narrative transportation. Gender is examined for its potential moderating impact on relationships revolving around e-WOM intent formation.

This study employs the partial least squares-structural equations modelling (SEM) and multi-group analyses (MGA) approaches to examine consumer responses to luxury hotel brands’ Instagram marketing. Data from 268 responses to an online survey was analyzed on Smart PLS4.

Results confirm that comprehension fluency, imagery fluency and narrative transportation are predictors of brand trust. Additionally, brand trust and narrative transportation impact e-WOM intention. The impact of narrative transportation on e-WOM intention is relatively stronger in men; while women exhibit a stronger impact of brand trust on e-WOM intention.

It is recommended that luxury hotel brands create content which is easy to comprehend and also capable of inducing mental imagery, to boost the narrative transportation effect. Content should be tailored to target specific gender segments to enhance e-WOM effectiveness. Detailed strategies for segment-specific content are discussed in the paper.

This study demonstrates how gender differences shape consumer responses to brand storytelling on Instagram, particularly for luxury hotels, filling a notable gap in extant literature.

In this study, the effects are investigated of brand and product storytelling on customer assessments of perceived attitude, quality, experience, recommendation and purchase intention based on narrative transportation theory within the domain of winery e-commerce.

In the research, two distinct constructs are introduced for brand and product storytelling, and multivariate analysis of variance is applied to analyze data collected from 391 respondents from the UK.

It is indicated in the study that embedding storytelling into elements, such as age verification screens on e-commerce sites, notably improves evaluations for both brands and products. Product storytelling broadly boosts customer appraisals in every evaluated aspect, while brand storytelling shows effectiveness in more limited cases. This suggests that narratives focused on products may have a wider appeal in enhancing the online customer experience.

This research underscores the strategic significance of balancing the focus between brand and product in crafting storytelling narratives for e-commerce contexts. It offers new insights into tailoring storytelling to meet individual consumer needs online, enriching the existing body of literature on storytelling’s application in digital commerce. Importantly, the study provides actionable guidance for wineries and other businesses aiming to enhance their online customer engagement through targeted narrative strategies.

A growing number of consumers expect brands to take a stand on social issues. When Gillette launched its video with a social message in 2019, the popular press described it as divisive and controversial. This study aims to examine themes behind the polarized consumer response, aiding brands in the development of social narrative videos.

The authors use an existential-phenomenological approach to investigate the meaning behind consumers’ reactions to the Gillette video. Empirical data collection consisted of 24 semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using the hermeneutic method.

By viewing the Gillette video through the lens of a story, this research uncovers how marketing stories can lead to different interpretations. Specifically, the roots of polarization lie in perceived realism activation and character activation. Additionally, product placement may activate persuasive intent, interrupting immersion into the story.

Brand managers should consider the potential for alternative interpretations when using storytelling. By measuring a viewer’s narrative transportation, it is possible to identify different interpretations. From a tactical standpoint, brand managers should be cautious about using celebrity endorsers and prominent product placement in social narrative videos. These cues activate persuasive intent, leading to alternative interpretations.

While marketing research has tended to focus on storytelling’s positive outcomes, this research considers how stories can result in polarizing outcomes for brands. The concept of social narrative videos is introduced and a framework is presented that outlines facilitators and inhibitors for this type of brand communication.