A comparative impact of cause-related marketing and sponsorship leveraged internet display advertising

Abstract

Cause-related marketing (CRM) and sponsorship activities have become an increasingly popular corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, whereby firms partner with non-profit organisations (NPOs) to achieve varieties of business objectives, while still supporting NPOs social causes. Advances in internet technology and e-commerce activities have facilitated the widespread use of internet CRM and sponsorship advertisement frames targeting potential donors and online customers. Typically, firms communicate through ads in a variety of ways, such as offering a precise donation amount (PDA) to the charity organisation in question, or by declaring mutually beneficial collaboration of the firms brand with the non-profit organisation (NPO), by stating an imprecise donation (IDA)offer. This study compares the effectiveness of PDA ads (both at low and high donation amounts) with imprecise donation amount (IDA) internet display advertisement frames, in terms of attitude and purchase intention from a fundraising perspective. Using a web-based experimental survey design involving the national representative sample, the results of the ANCOVA analysis revealed that there is no significant difference in attitudes between precise and imprecise donation ad frames(PDA & IPA). However, PDA advertisements were found to indicate higher purchase intention than the IDA ad frame; regardless of the perceived donation amounts were either low or high. Furthermore, PDA ads with higher donation amounts (versus low donation amount) engender greater purchase. This study contributes to the understanding of the effective use of cause-related and sponsorship internet ads, for consumer segmentation and targeting.