Cause-related marketing as a commercially and socially oriented activity: what factors influence and moderate the purchasing?

Abstract

Cause-related marketing uniquely integrates business objectives with social causes, thus simultaneously satisfying usual consumer needs and moral considerations to support social campaigns. As cause-related marketing (CRM) becomes more prevalent, companies will need to be more effective and efficient in launching cause-related marketing campaigns. Simply having a cause-related marketing campaign was once sufficient to distinguish a company; increasing competitiveness in this arena means that campaigns have to be more distinctive and pertinent to successfully gain a position against competitors. While numerous studies have identified factors that influence consumer intention to purchase cause-related products, just a few of them have examined moderating influences. Therefore, this study sought to identify factors that moderated the influence of personal characteristics on the intention to purchase cause-related products. Data were obtained via online surveys from 393 English speaking Lithuanian students. Linear regression and moderating impact analysis were used in order to test seven hypotheses. Results confirmed that altruism, materialism and individualism have positive direct relationships with the intention to purchase cause-related products; product type and guilt did not have a moderating effect on those relationships, but cause involvement is an important moderator. These findings contribute to the theory of causerelated marketing by identifying moderators as being a specific type of personal characteristic (e.g., cause-involvement) and ruling out others (e.g., guilt), or product type. Furthermore, these findings provide insights to marketing managers for planning and positioning cause-related marketing campaigns by showing what factors amplify the effects of altruism, materialism and individualism in this context.

Cause-Related Marketing and Purchase Intention toward Team-Licensed Products: Moderating Effects of Sport Consumers’ Altruism

“…Altruism is a psychological trait via which individuals help others without seeking or receiving any external rewards, and it serves as a significant motivator behind volunteer work that provides aid to others [39]. In the context of cause-related marketing, altruism is considered a key factor in encouraging consumers to support social causes and to become socially responsible society members [40]. Given this, Patel et al [38] found that, when consumers have a positive attitude regarding a brand that realizes CRM, they show high purchase intention related to the brand, and the link between brand attitude and purchase intention becomes stronger if the consumers are more involved with the cause.…”

Creating Shared Value and Fan Loyalty in the Korean Professional Volleyball Team

“…In general, altruism means an individual's intrinsic psychological tendency to help others without any external compensation [21]. Highly altruistic consumers tend to respond more positively to corporate social responsibility activities and care to help others more often than non-altruistic consumers [22]. For example, Lavack and Kropp [19] reported that consumers who are more interested in philanthropic activities value positive relationships with others and show a more positive attitude toward corporate social responsibility activities.…”

Willingness to pay for cause-related products: the impact of consumer attitudes and elements of a CrM campaign

“…Not only do these personality features stimulate willingness to buy products from socially responsible companies (e.g. [Adomaviciute et al 2016;Webb, Mohr 1998]) but, as the research presented in this paper shows, they also enhance the willingness to pay a higher price for charity-linked products. Regarding consumer attitude toward social causes, Bagozzi [1979] deserves a mention.…”

“…While most studies around the economic results of CrM refer to the purchase intention, the author's own research is focused on WTP. In the face of growing interest in the CrM concept, both from practitioners and researchers [Natarajan et al 2016;Adomaviciute et al 2016], a gap is revealed in the research on its economic effects expressed in paying more. The emerging problem of sufficient knowledge regarding the determinants of a consumer's willingness to pay more for cause-related products 1 , including Polish realities, constitutes the main factor in favour of discussing the willingness to pay issue.…”