Brand Authenticity Scale

What it measures

Measures consumer perceptions of brand authenticity across three dimensions. Quality Commitment captures the brand's consistent delivery of high quality, craftsmanship, and reliability over time. Heritage captures the brand's historical roots, origin story, and continuity with its founding values and traditions. Sincerity captures the brand's honest, genuine, and non-commercially motivated communication and behaviour. Brand authenticity is a powerful driver of consumer trust, brand attachment, willingness to pay premiums, and forgiveness of brand failures. Consumers increasingly scrutinise brand authenticity in response to purpose-washing, greenwashing, and performative brand activism. The BAS is the most widely used consumer-based brand authenticity scale in marketing research.

Response format

Likert (1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree)

Scale items

Quality Commitment — brand's dedication to quality and craft (Likert 1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree)

• This brand delivers on its promises.
• This brand is committed to quality.
• This brand is reliable.
• This brand never compromises on quality.

Heritage — brand's history, roots, and tradition

• This brand has a rich history.
• This brand has a strong tradition.
• This brand has stood the test of time.
• This brand has a genuine legacy.

Sincerity — brand is honest and genuine in its values

• This brand has genuine values.
• This brand is true to its own values.
• This brand is honest.
• This brand does not pretend to be something it is not.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Three subscale scores. Heritage is the strongest authenticity cue for legacy and luxury brands. Sincerity is the most powerful predictor of brand trust and resistance to authenticity threats (e.g., celebrity endorsement controversies, greenwashing accusations). Quality Commitment is most salient in functional product categories. Widely used in research on craft beer, artisanal products, heritage brands, and brand activism authenticity.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Napoli, J., Dickinson, S.J., Beverland, M.B., & Farrelly, F. (2014). Measuring consumer-based brand authenticity. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), 1090–1098.

Keywords