Cause-related Marketing Research Articles

How much can Saudi corporations benefit from cause-related marketing? Insights from exploring the charitable incentives of Saudi consumers

PurposeThis study aims to explain the impact of donations to a charity, company-cause fitting, corporate reputation, corporate philanthropic involvement and message content on Saudi consumers who purchase products that are promoted using cause-related marketing (CrM) campaigns.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modelling partial least square is used to analyse the responses of 293 Saudi respondents.FindingsUsing Smart-PLS, the results show that donation size is positively related to the Saudi consumer’s purchase intention. However, differences in the donation amount did not affect the purchase intention. Regardless of the cause that motivates firms to donate money to philanthropic organisations, Saudi customers do not generally pay attention to the company-cause fit association. Retail corporate reputation, corporate philanthropic involvement and message content positively influence the purchase of products sold using CrM campaigns. This study explores the psychological and social attitudes Saudi customers demonstrate towards CrM campaigns. Regardless of corporation motives, Saudi customers care about charitable deeds. Moreover, positive message framing is effective when the content is emotive, comprehensive and persuasive.Originality/valueThis study explores the psychological and social attitudes Saudi customers pay towards CrM campaigns. The message content relied significantly upon the cause fit and the magnitude of the donated money. Marketing research would benefit from investigating the role of applying efficient persuasive tactics to convey and frame public messages.

Donating to a good cause: Optimal coordination design of a dyadic supply chain with socially aware consumers

Socially aware consumers care about giving to a good cause through their purchases. In reality, though, while some consumers respond favourably to companies' social responsibility initiatives, others apprehend because they do not trust the company or the effectiveness of the cause. That variability in consumers’ perceptions and purchase decisions inevitably adds to demand uncertainty. This paper studies the optimal design of a coordination mechanism for a socially responsible dyadic supply chain (SC) with a manufacturer supporting a cause-related marketing campaign (CMC) and a retailer selling to socially aware consumers. Unlike in pertinent literature, we take demand as uncertain due to consumers’ diverse and unpredictable responses to announced CMC. In a Stackelberg game setting, we determine the optimal donation size (a percentage of the selling price) for the manufacturer and the retailer’s optimal order size. We show that a two-part tariff (TPT) contract coordinates the SC. The numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed TPT contract incentivizes the manufacturer to reach out to socially aware consumers by pledging to a charity. We also show that the proposed coordination model can achieve a Pareto-improving solution.

Price discrimination through cause‐related marketing

AbstractA common form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by firms is to agree to donate a fixed portion of private good revenues to a charitable cause. In this paper, we explore a new rationale for such CSR known commonly as Cause‐Related Marketing (CRM). We argue that linking private good purchase with charitable donations to a partnering nongovernmental organization (NGO) allows the firm to price discriminate between altruistic consumers who wish to make charitable donations out of their income and nonaltruistic consumers who do not place any value on such donations. The disparity in altruistic propensities translates into a difference in private good value which limits the firm's ability to extract consumer surplus in the private good market. Linking private good sales to charity brings down the variation in private good value and enables the firm to appropriate greater surplus. At the same time, by inducing nonaltruistic consumers to donate through their purchase of the charity‐linked good, CRM may also increase charitable donations to the NGO beyond the level that would be achieved under the standard voluntary contributions equilibrium. We extend our model to consider the effects of CRM on profits and donations when altruistic consumers can choose between donating directly to the NGO out of their income and donating through their purchase of the charity‐linked good. We consider this choice in the context of CRM advertising where firms make the altruism of their consumers public and thus provide exhibition value to donations made through the charity‐linked good. We find that the case for CRM strengthens when we allow the firm to appropriate exhibition utility through advertising while enabling greater donations for the NGO through direct donations as well as CRM.

Visual attention paid to negative comments in cause-related posts: visual style and emotionality matter

The goal of this study is to explore how the execution style (product vs. cause) and the emotionality of pictures in brand-generated cause-related marketing (CRM) posts accompanied by negative user comments impact on visual attention. A between-subjects eye-tracking-based experiment was conducted in which 123 participants were exposed to CRM posts published by a fast-food restaurant. The findings showed that the text in CRM posts attracts longer fixation duration than do pictures, although pictures attract attention first. The attention paid to pictures is significantly greater in product-focussed posts, whereas text attracted greater attention in cause-focussed posts. Emotional images received significantly less attention than non-emotional images. Corporate image perceptions and visual attention paid increase customer brand advocacy. We outline theoretical contributions and practical implications for the restaurant sector and make suggestions for future research in the field of CRM persuasion.

Testing the Influence of Donation Message-framing, Donation Size, and Product Type (Androgynous Luxury: Hedonic Vs. Eco-friendly: Utilitarian) on CRM Participation Intention

ABSTRACT Cause-related marketing (CRM) is generally referred to the practice of organizations associating their products with purchase-triggered donations to establish differentiation and to create a meaningful impact. This research study investigates cause-related marketing (CRM) participating intentions of generation Z consumers. Through two experimental studies, this study contributes to the existing literature by shedding light on the impact of donation message-framing, donation size, and product type on CRM participation intentions, thus guiding marketers to design effective CRM campaigns. The findings established that generation Z, who buy androgynous luxury product (hedonic) and eco-friendly product (utilitarian), prefer exact donation message-framing while engaging in CRM initiatives. The present study further revealed that vague donation message-framing and smaller donation size would not appeal generation Z while buying CRM-linked androgynous luxury product as well as eco-friendly product. This research offers insightful observations for marketers to design CRM campaigns effectively by carefully crafting structural elements of the campaign to boost the overall CRM success.

Using personalization for cause-related marketing beyond compassion fade on social media

PurposeIn light of the increasing occurrences of social issues and natural disasters, the number of people who need financial assistance is also growing. Using the compassion fade framework, marketing scholars have focused on the impact of the number of victims in need of monetary donations. Situated in the cause-related marketing context, the purpose of this study is to test whether personalization and perceived social visibility moderate the influence of compassion on social engagement intention to participate in a company’s charity.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted an online experiment with a 2 (number of children in need: single vs group) x 2 (personalization: personalized vs general) between subjects’ design and measured perceived social visibility as a numeric variable divided into three groups. Two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), a simple moderation analysis, and a moderated mediation analysis using the PROCESS macro were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsCompassion fade occurred in general advertisements whereas the opposite tendency occurred in personalized advertisements. The positive effect of compassion on social engagement intention was stronger at a high level of perceived social visibility; the effect was significant but weak in the low perceived social visibility condition. The indirect effects from the number of children to social engagement intention via compassion were significant in the personalized ads with medium/high social visibility conditions and general ads with medium/high social visibility conditions; the indirect effects were insignificant in the personalized ads with low social visibility and general ads with low social visibility conditions.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study should help companies develop and implement effective cause-related marketing strategies via social media, providing consumers with an opportunity to show others how they support social and environmental issues.Originality/valueThis study increases the understanding of the influence of the number of children in need on social media posts incorporating cause-related marketing and emphasizes the interaction effects of compassion, personalization and perceived social visibility.

Private-label grocery buyers’ donation intentions and trust in CRM campaigns: an empirical analysis by employing social identity theory

PurposeBusinesses embark on corporate social responsibility initiatives such as cause-related marketing (CRM) as a strategy to enhance behavioural intentions. This study was undertaken due to the limited ability of the existing CRM literature to directly examine whether and how consumers’ trust affects the donation intention, specifically in the private-label grocery retailing context. This study employs social identity theory as a unified theory to explain the variables adopted and contributes to the body of knowledge on CRM-linked private-label consumption.Design/methodology/approachThis study used SPSS 25 and AMOS to analyse the quantitative data. The structural equation modelling was adopted to test moderation and mediation effect and the sample consisted of 456 private-label grocery shoppers.FindingsThe findings of this study established that general trust in CRM alone would not translate into triggering donation intentions for CRM private-label brands and further validates the mediating role of trust in retailers’ CRM campaigns (TRCC) in shaping monetary donation intentions. Moreover, religious values confirmed a significant moderating role while translating TRCC to donation intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitation of this study was the restricted focus on private labels. This research may be limited to only one private-label packaged product but may focus on other private-label products in future research.Practical implicationsThis study has practical significance for advertising managers in designing and implementing campaigns. More specifically, it establishes that consumers who trust the CRM phenomenon and seek private-label products associated with CRM campaigns are likely to provide monetary donations towards non-profit organization (NPOs).Originality/valueThis information will help practitioners, including grocery retailers, NPO managers and advertising professionals, design effective CRM campaigns for private-label products by understanding the fundamental relationship between trust in CRM campaigns and monetary donation intentions.

The influence of cause-related marketing campaign structural elements on consumers’ cognitive and affective attitudes and purchase intention

This study explored middle- to high income consumers’ awareness and opinions of cause-related marketing and the influences of selected campaign structural elements on consumers’ responses. The study was conducted using qualitative focus groups and a quantitative 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment. A communications approach was adopted to investigate consumer responses to the cause-related marketing communicated campaign itself with education as the beneficiary. The qualitative research revealed that South African consumers are positively disposed toward cause-related marketing in an educational context and that they prefer positive, prosocial campaign messaging. The experiment confirmed that campaign structural elements exert significant independent and interactive influences on consumer intentions, attitudes, and perceptions. A low-involvement product, a specific donation recipient, and a high magnitude actual amount donation were found to have the most significant impact on consumer responses.

Cause Related Marketing and Sales Promotion: An Analysis of Comparative Impact on Consumer Attitude

In order to distinguish their brand companies are trying to be more strategic and adding innovative features in their product offerings. But in today’s time product differentiation exclusively on basis of product attributes is not going to help companies in long run. Subsequently, marketers are inventing different communication strategies to help brands stand out (La Ferle et al., 2013). Cause related marketing has become a new buzz word in the world of marketing communication techniques. Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to find impact of Cause Related Marketing (CRM) campaigns on consumer attitude and further the study also provides an analysis of comparative impact of cause related marketing and sales promotion on consumer attitude. Methodology: For the collection of primary data, structured questionnaires were distributed among respondents. A total of 300 respondents were initially contacted, out of which total of 270 responded back. The comparative analysis was done on the basis of Wilcoxon signed rank test. Findings: The result of the study shows that the consumer has more positive attitude towards cause related marketing as compare to the sales promotion strategy. Implications: From the analysis, it is observed that a company can gain more consumer attention if much emphasize can be given in designing cause related marketing strategy, this will provide an opportunity to company to become a socially responsible citizen.

An Analysis of Cause-Related and Social Marketing Strategies in the South African Sport Management Industry

There is a dearth of sport marketing research investigating the strategic potential of socially responsible sport marketing practices for organizations in the sport management industry. Despite the more recent focus on this the emergent topic within marketing literature, there is a lack of application of cause-related marketing (CRM) and social marketing (SM) strategies in the sport marketing context. Furthermore, these strategies are often confused with corporate social responsibility (CSR). The main purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the adoption of CRM and SM marketing strategies by professional sport organizations (PSOs) in South Africa. An interpretivist philosophy and qualitative approach was adopted for the study, which centered on in-depth interviews conducted with key individuals from six South African PSOs. The findings revealed encouraging evidence of South African PSOs engagement in CRM and SM activities. However, it also revealed that the strategic potential of these elements were not leveraged, mainly due to a lack of understanding of these concepts. The differences and similarities between CRM and SM are identified, according to practitioner understandings. The study contributes to sport marketing literature and practice by proposing a conceptual framework to guide the effective planning and execution of strategic CRM and SM campaigns by PSOs. This framework can assist PSOs to engage in social responsible marketing approaches to improve their marketing performance while maintaining socially responsible business practices.

Egoism or Altruism? The Influence of Cause-Related Marketing on Customers’ Extra-Role Behavior

Based on attribution theory and regulatory focus theory, this paper discusses the influence mechanism of cause-related marketing on customers’ extra-role behavior and the moderating effects of customer promotion focus and customer prevention focus. The results show that egoistic cause-related marketing (ECRM) has a negative impact on customer extra-role behavior, while altruistic cause-related marketing has a positive impact on customer extra-role behavior. Customer promotion focus has a significant positive moderating effect on the negative impact of ECRM on customer extra-role behavior; customer promotion focus also has a significant positive moderating effect on the positive effect of altruistic cause-related marketing on customer extra-role behavior. There is a significant negative moderating effect of customer prevention focus on the negative impact of ECRM on customer extra-role behavior, while there is a significant positive moderating effect of customer prevention focus on the positive impact of altruistic cause-related marketing on customer extra-role behavior.

Cause Marketing in a Time of Polarization

Abstract: The polarization of consumer reactions to many social causes today, such as women's rights, transgender rights, racial justice, climate change, and the environment, makes cause marketing riskier and more complex than it has been in the past. The research study reported here highlights the nature and importance of authenticity in messaging and provides data from 28 marketing professionals about how to do cause marketing effectively, avoiding pitfalls that may alienate consumers. The study finds that the characteristics of authenticity that marketing professionals find most important in today's environment of cause-related marketing efforts are different from the characteristics of authenticity in more general environments—those not related to these contemporary social causes. Moreover, cause marketing has become widespread in our economy and is a reflection of changes in values, mores, and attitudes in society. In spite of the risks of cause marketing, the professionals in this sample believe it is worth the effort.

Cause‐related marketing of luxury brands: Nudging materialists to act prosocially

AbstractAcross four experiments, we show that materialists' willingness to engage in cause‐related marketing (CRM) depends on the type of campaign: product‐linked (brand linked to a cause through limited‐edition products) or donation‐linked (direct donations to a charitable cause). Materialists are more willing to engage in product‐linked than donation‐linked campaigns, whereas nonmaterialists show the opposite pattern. The effect for materialists is driven by the status‐signaling qualities that luxury products convey and is eliminated for value brands and when materialists' need for status is momentarily satiated. This study shows that materialists can be nudged to behave prosocially by leveraging their status‐seeking motivations in the context of luxury consumption, and luxury brands will maximize participation by utilizing product‐linked CRM campaigns.

An anatomy of carewashing: Corporate branding and the commodification of care during Covid-19.

This article defines ‘carewashing’ as commercial branding strategies which commodify care and attempt to increase corporate profit, and provides the first theorisation and historicisation of the term. The first section of the article situates ‘carewashing’ in relation to longer-term strategies of corporate ‘social responsibility’ and cause-related marketing. The second shows how established corporate practices are being reinvented in an era of Covid-19 and amidst profound neoliberal instability. The third section focuses on specific examples of contemporary carewashing, showing their variation and pinpointing three tendencies: ‘opportunistic branding’; ‘community resourcing’; and ‘reputational steamrolling’. The concluding section argues that carewashing also needs to be understood as a political act which is involved in wider social struggles. It argues that, in the Gramscian sense, carewashing is part of a ‘passive revolution’ in that it is attempting to claim and demarcate the realm of care for corporate capitalism and against social democracy.

Good cause, not so good business? Sales and operations performance of cause‐related marketing

AbstractBuilding on prior literature on sales and operations planning, corporate social responsibility, and marketing campaigns, we investigate cause‐related marketing (C‐RM) effects on sales and operations performance across the retail supply chain. C‐RM is a corporate social responsibility marketing campaign, in which a for‐profit firm donates proceeds from consumer purchases of a promoted product to a designated nonprofit cause. Using a unique, rich, and proprietary dataset from an actual CR‐M campaign, we conduct a quasi‐experiment analysis. Our findings suggest positive C‐RM effects on retail store sales during the campaign, coupled with enduring negative effects on forecast bias and service levels upstream in the retail supply chain. Although academic studies and the specialized media have thoroughly documented the benefits of C‐RM to corporate branding, our findings point to trade‐offs in sales and operations performance across the retail supply chain. These findings call for firms to carry out holistic assessments of the strategic value of C‐RM involving all of its stakeholders, including sales and operations planners and the nonprofit cause, as well as investments in the development and improvement of their forecasting management competence.

Donation Levels in Cause-Related Marketing (CRM): The Impact of Donation levels, Consumer Support and Self-Expressive Cues on Perceived Benefits and Perceived Monetary Sacrifice

In this study, we examine the extent to which donation level is perceived as a concept of benefit and monetary sacrifice to consumers, as well as that the extent to which it is moderated by consumer support for cause domains. In addition, we investigate the influence of self-expressive cues as a means of increasing consumers’ intention of participating in cause-related marketing (CRM) by lowering perceived monetary sacrifice. As a result of Study 1, consumers with high-level cause support perceived the donation level as a benefit, resulting in a positive effect on their intentions to participate in CRM. Conversely, consumers with low-level support perceived the donation level as monetary sacrifice. Thus, donation level had a negative effect on their participation intentions. Study 2 showed that self-expressive cues dilute the interaction effect of donation levels and consumer support. We conclude by discussing the academic and practical implications of this study.

Attracting Generation Z talents to the hospitality industry through COVID CSR practices

PurposeThis study aims to examine how COVID-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities affect future Generation Z employees’ intention to join the hotel industry through experimental designs.Design/methodology/approachBased on signaling theory, construal level theory and value theory, this study established an integrated research framework to explain the mechanism of CSR communication. The proposed study conducted three online experiments on a total of 463 participants. ANCOVA test and PROCESS macro were performed to analyze the data for main, mediation and moderation effects.FindingsThe results of this study indicate that in-kind donation is more efficacious in improving Generation Z’s job pursuit intention, as compared to cause-related marketing (CRM). CSR messages framed in a “how” mindset are favored by Generation Z members who are either unemployed or eager to change their current job. The findings also confirm the effect of brand warmth as a mediator and other-regarding personal value as a moderator.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study contributes to the limited knowledge on CSR initiatives by addressing the research gap of future employees and examining CSR as a response to COVID-19. The findings also provide hotel executives actionable implications to plan and communicate future CSR programs, especially during times of crisis.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first studies to address Generation Z employees and to investigate the role of CSR initiatives on future hotel workers.

Experiential design on cause-related marketing: lessons from the fill-the-bottle challenge

PurposeBased on a “Fill-the-Bottle” (FTB) challenge, this research explores how experiential design can help cause-related marketing. This study aims to show that experiences designed as anti-structural and anti-functional can raise awareness through action.Design/methodology/approachThe authors study a corpus of 52 introspective journals and 60 pictures about the challenge, which entails filling empty bottles with cigarette butts from the streets as quickly as possible, then sharing pictures of the bottles on social media.FindingsThe anti-structural design of the experience activates the participants’ experiential system, and the social interactions between the participants and pedestrians construct meaning for the experience. The results further indicate that as follows: individuals’ frames of reference can explain whether they perceive the experience as liberatory or stochastic; anti-structural design can serve cause-related marketing by focusing on three stages: doing, showing and sharing; and experiential marketing can serve societal and social causes.Research limitations/implicationsThis research involved a single field. Further research with more heterogeneous participants would be insightful. The power of experiential marketing to serve meaningful and collective causes should be encouraged. Further research should be conducted to understand and conceptualize these collective attempts to fight the dark sides of consumption.Practical implicationsIn line with Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) advice to stage memorable experiences by working cautiously on cues, the FTB challenge analysis indicates that by focusing on material evidence and staging a specific sequence of doing something about it, showing everyone what is being done and expanding visibility by sharing artifacts of the action on social media, one can actually make people think about and remember the action.Social implicationsThe “do-show-share” design that the FTB challenge uses can be relevant for many cause-related marketing efforts because it operates on both individual and collective levels.Originality/valueThis research offers a new perspective on experiential marketing by studying how experiences designed to be anti-structural can renew social, cause-related marketing tools.

Cause-related marketing: a systematic review of the literature

Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) is one of the most versatile activities among the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Though CRM is extensively researched, however, only a few authors have performed systematic literature reviews on CRM. Therefore, more systematic reviews of CRM are still needed to complete and bring together the more contributions, advances, and different existing research lines. Thus, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the existing literature in CRM from the two keywords: “Cause-Related Marketing” and “Cause Marketing”, and the time period ranges from 1988 to 2020. In this study, rigorous protocol is used in synthesizing 344 English articles drawing upon e-journal database searches. These articles were categorized by time-wise development, country-wise development, methodological development, cross-cultural analysis, the role of journals. This study also carried out the Bibliometric Analyses. The review highlights that the concept of CRM has evolved from being considered a marketing mix tool (a promotion tool), to being considered as a CSR initiative, with a more strategic character. Our findings revealed that only a few journals published articles on CRM. Geographically, the CRM study was initiated in North America, followed by Europe and Oceania, and Asian and Sub-Saharan African countries. From the third decade, there was more collaboration in cross-cultural studies and the use of mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative studies) approach. Lastly, this study shows the most manifest research gaps in CRM that opens avenue for future research.

Does the use of cause-related marketing in fast-food restaurants lead to different consumer perceptions?

Cause-related marketing (CRM) is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy brands use to increase their competitiveness. However, little attention is paid to how CRM in fast food restaurants is explicitly perceived by consumers’ ratings of brands within an African context. In this study, 151 consumers in South Africa participated in a pretest-posttest control group design. The findings indicate that when a CRM campaign was introduced to the group that was aware of the campaign, the group was more positive than those who were not aware and did not receive an intervention. The study concludes that the aware experimental group showed significant improvement in scores in favour of the brand with a CRM initiative. The findings are consistent with prior research; however, this study is the first to explore brand trust using the card scoring method. This study can at least partly provide useful reference points on these issues and inform marketers in debatable questions such as whether there is a difference in rating scores following a CRM campaign intervention. The study also extends the card scoring method and brand authenticity of fast food by connecting consumer perception and brand trust within an African context.