ORIGINAL ARTICLE Brand authenticity, its conceptualization, and its relevance to nonprofit marketing Walter Wymer 1 & Mohammad Muzahid Akbar 2 Received: 27 September 2016 /Accepted: 12 February 2017 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract The conceptualization of brand authenticity as evidenced from the extent literature is examined for validity issues. The body of literature on brand authenticity has produced a fragmented and varied theory of the construct and the value of knowledge produced from this research stream is questionable. This is problematic for researchers working on nonprofit marketing topics that investigate brand authen- ticity as a construct of interest. In the literature, brand authenticity has been defined in a variety of ways, typically as a multidimensional construct. As many as 40 different dimensions were found in our literature search. At the conclusion of our analysis, we present brand authenticity as a unidimensional construct that refers to the degree to which a brand object is perceived to be the quintessential exemplar of its type. This definition of brand authenticity is most consistent with the denotative meaning of the term and is suited to all types of brand objects including nonprofit organizations. Keywords Brand authenticity . Theory construction . Construct definition 1 Introduction In the commercial sector, the growth in the number of brands and rapid imitation of competitor product innovations have led to high levels of product similarity. Brand managers are attempting to remain competitive by finding ways to maintain brand distinctiveness and finding ways of evoking strengthening brand preference (Gilmore and Pine 2007). In the nonprofit sector, branding has become a major managerial mindset for nonprofit executives and influences their strategic and tactical decisions (Kylander and Stone 2012). Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark DOI 10.1007/s12208-017-0177-z * Walter Wymer walter.wymer@uleth.ca 1 University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada 2 University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada