Cause-Related Marketing: A Coalignment of Marketing Strategy and Corporate Philanthropy

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Marketing Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Marketing.Cause-related marketing represents the confluence of perspectives from several specialized areas of inquiry such as marketing for nonprofit organizations, the promotion mix, corporate philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, fund-raising management, and public relations. The authors outline the concept of cause-related marketing, its characteristics, and how organizations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, can benefit from effective use of this promising marketing tool. USINESS literature has examined three rationales for corporate philanthropy: through-the-firm giving, corporate statesmanship, and profit-motivated giving (see Fry, Keim, and Meiners 1982). Causerelated marketing (CRM) has emerged in recent years as a new form of corporate philanthropy based on the rationale of profit-motivated giving. We provide a review and synthesis of the emerging field of cause-related marketing. The purposes of our article are to (1) trace the evolution of corporate philanthropy and the emergence of CRM, (2) propose a definition of CRM and address some of the current misunderstanding of its nature and scope, (3) provide a detailed discussion on the managerial and social dimensions of CRM, and (4) propose directions for future research. Corporate involvement in social well-being began as voluntary responses to social issues and problems, then evolved into a phase of mandated corporate involvement, and is now evolving into a phase in which social responsibility is viewed as an investment by corporations (Stroup and Neubert 1987). A brief description of these phases is warranted to trace the emergence of CRM.Voluntarily doing good. Stroup and Neubert (1987) note that early philanthropy and social responsiveness were undertaken by public-spirited corporations voluntarily. Though such undertakings invariably reduced profit because they consumed corporate resources (Stroup and Neubert 1987), some authors contend that even these voluntary actions were not entirely altruistic . Keim (1978a,b), for instance, points out that corporate philanthropy encompasses a range of activities, some that may positively affect the profit of contributors and others based on purely altruistic considerations.2 Morris and Biederman (1985) note that shrewd alignment of corporate and social needs marked the first 50 years of corporate philanthropy. The use of CRM as an integral component of a firm's marketing strategy calls for decisions on the part of the firm about a broad range of dimensions. Some of the major dimensions of CRM are outlined in Table 2. The list is illustrative and not exh...

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