Despite the increase in acquisitions of smaller brands by large CPG companies, the impact of acquisitions on a brand’s perceived authenticity is a topic that has not extensively been explored in the literature. This study examined how acquisition information affected consumer perceptions of authenticity of three brands: Annie’s Homegrown, Ben and Jerry’s and Burt’s Bees. The study was conducted using participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Findings supported the hypothesis that corporate acquisitions have the potential to undermine consumer perceptions of brand authenticity and also provided support for a new model of the dimensionality of brand authenticity.
