Brand Message Authenticity

What it measures

A five-item sentence-completion scale measuring the degree to which a consumer perceives a specific brand communication or social media post as authentic, truthful, and genuinely caring. Items assess authenticity, truthfulness, genuineness, and demonstrated care — both for a specific cause or issue and for consumers generally. A blank in item 4 allows specification of the topic or cause the brand is communicating about. The scale captures perceived communicative authenticity as distinct from overall brand authenticity or brand credibility.

Response format

7-point Likert

Scale items

• ...was authentic.
• ...was truthful.
• ...seemed genuine.
• ...demonstrated that the brand cares about __________.
• ...demonstrated that the brand cares about its consumers.

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

Usage notes & scoring

SENTENCE COMPLETION FORMAT: Items complete a stem describing the brand communication being evaluated (e.g., 'This social media post...' or 'The brand's message...'). The blank in item 4 should be replaced with the specific cause or topic communicated (e.g., 'the environment', 'diversity'). Single alpha: α = .95 — Shoenberger, Kim & Sun (2021, n = 194 Qualtrics panel). VALIDITY: Not discussed. Adapted from Shoenberger, Kim & Johnson (2020) — items overlap partially but are not identical. Scale was adapted specifically for social media brand communication contexts.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Shoenberger, Heather, Eunjin (Anna) Kim, and Yiyi Sun (2021). Journal of Advertising, 50(3), 249–263.

Keywords