Cause Related Marketing among Millennial Consumers: The Role of Trust and Loyalty in the Food Industry

Marco Lerro,Marcello Stanco,Maria Raimondo,Giuseppe Marotta,Concetta Nazzaro

doi:10.3390/su11020535

Marco Lerro, Marcello Stanco + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020535

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jan 20, 2019
Citations: 53	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Sannio

Abstract

The current study investigates the willingness of Millennial consumers towards several corporate social responsibility initiatives carried out by food companies. More specifically, it explores four cause related marketing campaigns implemented by food companies to spread corporate social responsibility. The analysis was carried out in Italy by administering a structured questionnaire to 308 consumers. The willingness of participants to switch a chocolate snack of their favourite brand to another with similar characteristics but produced by a company supporting different social and environmental causes was assessed in four different scenarios. The study uncovered the effects of both loyalty towards the brand and trust in cause related marketing on consumers’ willingness to support different corporate social responsibility initiatives. The findings unveiled the willingness of Millennials to support companies’ social and environmental initiatives. Both trust and loyalty played a key role in affecting consumers’ willingness to support corporate social responsibility initiatives of food companies. Social and environmental concerns as well as socio-demographics aspects are also significant in supporting cause related marketing campaigns. The study has shed light on the preference of consumers towards corporate social responsibility and cause related marketing. Specifically, it provides marketing insights on the initiatives most preferred by consumers to which companies should address their efforts.

Highlights

The recent decades have seen the arising of public concerns due to the impacts of business operations on the environment and society [1,2]
The current study investigates the willingness of Millennial consumers towards several corporate social responsibility initiatives carried out by food companies
The paper focused on the role of cause related marketing in addressing consumers’ purchasing decisions

Summary

Introduction

The recent decades have seen the arising of public concerns due to the impacts of business operations on the environment and society [1,2]. As for the agri-food sector, food companies are often referred as accountable for: (i) impacting negatively the environment and depleting natural resources and biodiversity [3,4,5,6]; (ii) affecting society and communities in which they operate as well as people’ health and life [7,8]; (iii) applying unfair business practices, exerting a considerable bargaining power on the actors involved in the supply chain [8,9,10] In line with these concerns, at the beginning of the 21st century, the European Commission publishing the Green Paper (2001) [11] on corporate social responsibility (CSR) opens the debate on the growing role played by companies. Companies have to adopt more sustainable production process, respectful of the environment and people involved, while consumers have to reward companies CSR initiatives purchasing their products and recognizing a premium price [13,18]

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