The influence of gender, social cause, charitable support, and message appeal on Gen Y's responses to cause-related marketing

Abstract

This study examined the influence of gender, type of social cause, amount of charitable support, and message appeal on Gen Y consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions towards an apparel brand within the context of cause-related marketing. A questionnaire, with an experimental design component, was administered to a sample of 562 Gen Y college students. Results suggest that Gen Y consumers are more likely to form positive attitudes towards an apparel brand when the amount of the charitable support is clearly communicated. Gender did not influence attitude towards brand, but did predict purchase intentions. Attitude towards brand, subjective norm, evaluation of the advertisement, and involvement in social causes were strong predictors of purchase intentions. When developing CRM initiatives, marketers should consider Gen Y's involvement in a social cause (e.g. volunteerism) rather than their stated interest in the given cause, and they would be well advised to state precisely (in advertisements) the amount of monetary contribution made to charitable causes.

Millennials y redes sociales: estrategias para una comunicación de marca efectiva

“…No obstante lo anterior, hay un amplio consenso en la definición de los rasgos generales que definen a la Generación Y, y sobre sus diferencias y cambios de valores con respecto a sus generaciones predecesoras (Hyllegard et al, 2011). Alsop (2008) define a los Milenials como personas más tolerantes, optimistas, inquietas, cívicas, orientadas al trabajo en equipo y concienciadas en la búsqueda de un equilibrio entre el trabajo y el ocio.…”

Building brand equity with cause-related marketing: A comparison with sponsorship and sales promotion

“…Past research has explored a number of variables that contribute to the effectiveness of CRM, for example message framing (Grau and Folse 2007), donation size and type (Folse, Niedrich, and Grau 2010;Hyllegard et al 2011), type of cause (Ellen, Mohr, and Webb 2000;Harben and Forsythe 2011), temporal dimensions of the campaign (Tangari et al 2010), perceived compatibility between the brand and cause (Gupta and Pirsch 2006), perceived firm motivation (Barone, Norman, and Miyazaki 2007), product type (Strahilevitz and Myers 1998), brand involvement (Chowdhury and Khare 2011) and personal characteristics of the consumer (Youn and Kim 2008). This body of work provides evidence that under certain conditions, CRM is favorably regarded by the consumer and can offer a range of benefits including positive associations for the firm (Folse, Niedrich, and Grau 2010), enhanced brand attitude (Lafferty and Goldsmith 2005) and switching behavior and purchase intention (Lafferty, Goldsmith, and Hult 2004).…”

The influence of interactive, non-interactive, implicit and explicit CSR communication on young adults’ perception of UK supermarkets’ corporate brand image and reputation

“…Secondly, we selected young adults' perceptions of CSR communication as a frame of reference as they are regarded as a yardstick for socio-cultural changes (Kruger and Mostert, 2012), educated, critical and demanding consumers (Grant, 2004) manifesting high levels of social consciousness and care for social causes (Hyllegard et al, 2011).…”