Abstract

Many products and services today are advertised as “authentic;” however, not all consumers are equally knowledgeable about what this means. Cultural products, including tequila, are marketed with culturally congruent cultural symbols to increase consumers' perception of authenticity. However, research suggests consumers vary in their level of cultural expertise based on either their cultural identification or cosmopolitanism, which may moderate this relationship. This paper addresses the gap in the literature by measuring participants' level of cultural knowledge by the number of cultural symbols they recognize as Mexican and examines whether a participant’s expected cultural expertise can explain how many cultural symbols participants recognize, which explains their increased accuracy in identifying authentic product labels. The results illustrate that the more cultural cues participants recognize, the better they are at correctly identifying objectively authentic product labels. Although this paper finds no grounds for cultural expertise to moderate this relationship, consumers vary in their knowledge of cultural symbols, which should be considered when marketing to multiple consumer segments. It is suggested that ethnic products be marketed to a broader consumer market ethically, and future research could explore whether interest in a particular culture can explain the increased level of cultural knowledge.