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1. Introduction
In the marketing literature, the interest in the concept of brand authenticity first arose in early 2000. Looking at authenticity in the branding context, an authentic brand has been defined as, in spirit, a brand that is real, sincere and that evokes genuine passion (Beverland et al., 2008; Gilmore and Pine, 2007). Academic interest in brand authenticity has advanced in parallel with commercial interest, as brand managers now recognise its benefits in customer relation terms. Indeed, organisations have accepted brand authenticity as a possible differentiating attribute (Riefler, 2020).
To understand what authenticity means to consumers, consumer research has studied brand authenticity in multiple contexts, including green products (Ewing et al., 2012), fast-moving consumer goods (Dwivedi and McDonald, 2018), tourism sites (Grayson and Martinec, 2004), human brands (Kucharska et al., 2020; Moulard et al., 2015) and local versus global foods (Riefler, 2020).
“Craft beer” is conceptualized as a beer that (1) is brewed, bottled and sold by a privately owned brewery; (2) is small in production (six million barrels or less); and (3) contains only “traditional” ingredients (The Brewers Association, 2016). Craft beer producers highlight the cultural characteristics of their beers and/or their traditional production methods to appeal to potential consumers, because brand authenticity is essential to their success. The economic importance of the craft beer market, and its particularities, have recently attracted the attention of consumer behaviour researchers, although the business has, so far, been little studied (Donadini et al., 2016; Donadini and Porreta, 2017; Maciel and Wallendorf, 2017; Thomé et al., 2017).
Aquilani et al. (2015) argued that the craft beer industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the beverage industry, and that its increase in popularity has affected consumers' beer preferences and consumption. However, a better understanding of how consumers behave in the market will help managers implement their strategies more effectively.
Portugal is no exception: craft beers have gained ground there, and a variety of brands have been launched in recent years. “The Brewers of Europe” in 2017 reported that there were 120 brewers operating in Europe, of which 115 were microbreweries. In 2011, Portugal had only one registered microbrewery (The Brewers of Europe, 2020). Nielsen (2019) reported that, between April 2017...