It Rings True: How Company Founder’s Stories Enhance Perceived Authenticity of a Brand

Stories about a company’s founding and development (brand biographies) are frequently shared with consumers in promotional communications. The current work shows that these stories can enhance consumers’ perceptions that the focal brand is authentic. This influence occurs through a process of connecting the founders’ values, as inferred from the founder’s stated motive to start the business, to one’s own values (perceived narrative fidelity). Founders stories’ influence on perceived authenticity is enhanced when there is a “match” between the consumers’ values and the founder’s values.