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11 – 20 of over 133000Brian D. Till and Linda I. Nowak
Companies have become increasingly active in developing relationships between their brands and popular causes in such areas as the environment (e.g. nature conservancy) and health…
Abstract
Companies have become increasingly active in developing relationships between their brands and popular causes in such areas as the environment (e.g. nature conservancy) and health issues (e.g. breast cancer awareness crusade). As such alliances become a more important strategic component of the brand’s marketing mix, managers seek direction as to how to generate the most impact with these tie‐ins. This article uses associative learning principles as a framework for understanding how to facilitate building connections between brands and causes so as to increase the value of this highly visible marketing activity. Specific associative learning principles are detailed and applied, improving the use of cause‐related marketing alliances.
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Kambiz Heidarzadeh Hanzaee, Mona Sadeghian and Saeed Jalalian
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of corporate social responsibility on customer satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase with or without cause-related marketing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of corporate social responsibility on customer satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase with or without cause-related marketing or cause marketing across Islamic companies.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental survey of Iranian university students was conducted to investigate the customer satisfaction, loyalty and purchase intention with companies using social marketing methods such as corporate social responsibility along with cause marketing and cause-related marketing. A total of 400 usable surveys were obtained in SRBIA University of Tehran, while possessing the greatest ability to consume more hoteling services companies and mobile producers beyond Iranian students.
Findings
The results indicated that through an experimental research by including social marketing in products or service companies such as mobile producers and hotel services companies in Iran (as an Islamic country), there are same levels of loyalty and repurchase intentions, but different levels of customer’s satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors found out there is no significant difference regarding the effect of cause marketing and cause-related marketing on loyalty and repurchase intentions. Also, it is different on customer’s satisfaction given the company type.
Research limitations/implications
The sampling frame for this research was limited to students in one of Iran capital city universities. The results are not exactly generalized to all the populations for Iranian product or service consumers. Also, the sampling methods used in this research might have generated bias due to time and resources constraints. So, it is recommended for future studies to consider broader samplings more than university students and beyond only the consumers of international product or service companies.
Originality/value
No study has used corporate social responsibilities to explain customer satisfaction while providing cause marketing and cause-related marketing as corporate social marketing in service companies influencing the customer loyalty and repurchase intentions.
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João Guerreiro, Paulo Rita and Duarte Trigueiros
– The purpose of this study is to explain how cognitive and emotional responses may influence decisions to purchase cause-related products.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explain how cognitive and emotional responses may influence decisions to purchase cause-related products.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental design clarifies how autonomic reactions determine altruistic choices in a simulated shopping environment. Eye-tracking and electrodermal response measurements were set to predict choices of hedonic vs utilitarian cause-related vs unrelated products.
Findings
Emotional arousal, pleasure and attention to the cause-related bundle are associated with altruistic behaviour in hedonic choices. When facing utilitarian choices, customers focus on brand logo and donation amount while experiencing pleasure, but emotional arousal does not increase marketing effectiveness in this case.
Research limitations/implications
The experiment may be replicated in the real-world shopping environment, but spurious influences will be difficult to control. Distracting cues such as background music and scents used to increase positive emotions may affect intensity of emotive and cognitive processes.
Practical implications
The results highlight the prominence of automatic reactions in customers’ choices. In the present instance, managers’ effort should be directed to the raising of altruistic visual cues of the donation-based promotion and positive emotional responses through guilt reducing effects.
Originality/value
The study pioneers the use of eye-tracking coupled with skin conductance measurement in experimental designs aimed at clarifying the role of autonomic reactions such as emotional arousal, pleasure and attention in the effectiveness of emotionally charged marketing campaigns.
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Self-esteem values, with the new art of living, in the minds of Indians, lead to establish faith among the spiritual organization. Later on, the spiritual organizations brand…
Abstract
Purpose
Self-esteem values, with the new art of living, in the minds of Indians, lead to establish faith among the spiritual organization. Later on, the spiritual organizations brand their names and market the products in their branded name. These brands, which are inspired by faith and created by Indian spiritual gurus, have even disrupted the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market by being customer-centric instead of being geared by lucrative returns. It is in this context that this paper aims to find the cultural divergence factors that lead to change the consumption pattern of FMCG and how such brands of faith have been segmented in the Indian perspective by spiritual gurus. The research concludes that cultural divergence variables such as power distance, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation influence the brands that are inspired by faith. Spiritual gurus in India are using sociocultural marketing activities such as social endorsement and cause-related marketing strategies for segmenting the markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary data were collected from the 1,678 customers of the Isha products. The respondents were selected based on the snowball sampling. The responses were collected from the followers who visited the foundation at least three times during the period of two years in Coimbatore and purchased Isha products worth more than Rs 500. The data were collected between the period August 2016 and April 2018. Of 1,678 responses, 1,465 responses were validated after coding. Of 1,465 responses that were validated, 1,126 responses were found reliable.
Findings
“Cause-related marketing” and “social group endorsement” activities of the firms tend to create a brand image. To find out which of the above activities highly influence the brands of faith, realistic-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was carried out. ROC curves were drawn to assess the brands of faith centroid values with social group endorsement and cause-related marketing variables. ROC curves explored the precision of diagnostic tests and were used to find the best “cut-off” value for impressive and unimpressive cluster test results.
Research limitations/implications
Cultural divergence variables such as power distance, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation are influencing the brands of faith. The followers of the spiritual foundation have their own distinct culture, and their social affinity values increase the brands of faith. Social group endorsement and cause-related marketing are the marketing strategies suitable for spiritual foundation (to market their product/ service). Age, education and occupation are demographic values that influence the brands of faith. The spiritual foundations are segmenting their customers based on the occupational values, and they use the cause-related marketing strategies to increase the values of brands of faith.
Practical implications
As the cultural values related to the art of living have been recognized by society as the measure of social well-being, the spiritual leaders can enhance their brands of faith. The social media communication about cause-related marketing can create trust in society. On the other hand, societal marketing activities cannot target the entire society. Hence, it is to be stratified. While stratifying, the players of diversity markets have to target a group based on the values generated by the stakeholders in the foundation. The diversified markets created by the Indian spiritual gurus are providing cultural diversity.
Social implications
The business value created by spiritual foundations is increasing the social values which are essential to uplift society. The author concludes that if business values and societal values are integrated by any group of people, it improves economic value to that society and they can use the social currency in the form of “brands of faith”.
Originality/value
The cultural values of a society are measured and compared with national and global index. The enumerate method is an original one.
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Youssef Chetioui and Hind Lebdaoui
This paper aims to propose and test a theoretical framework in which attitude towards COVID-19 cause-related campaigns mediates the effects of identification with the cause…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose and test a theoretical framework in which attitude towards COVID-19 cause-related campaigns mediates the effects of identification with the cause, donation size, emotional arousal and subjective norms on consumer purchase intention. The authors also explore the moderating effect of religiosity in an emerging nation marked by the dominance of the Islamic doctrine.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from a sample of 561 consumers from Morocco were analyzed to test the hypotheses using structural equation modeling.
Findings
First, attitude toward COVID-19 cause-related campaigns has a significant effect on consumer purchase intention; at the same time, it is influenced by identification with the cause, donation size, emotional arousal and subjective norms. Second, the results confirm the mediating effect of attitude toward COVID-19 cause-related campaigns, e.g. higher emotional arousal triggers positive attitude towards COVID-19 cause campaigns, which shapes consumer purchase intention. Third, Islamic religiosity acts as a moderator, e.g. individuals who feel themselves as highly religious are more likely to develop favorable attitude towards cause brands and therefore form stronger purchase intentions when exposed to COVID-19 cause campaigns.
Practical implications
The findings of this research suggest a number of practical and social implications for both academics and practitioners. Successful cause-related marketing (CrM) campaigns should include facets inducing emotional arousal, superior donation size, identification with the cause and subjective norms, which, in turn, enhances consumers’ attitude toward the campaign, their attitude towards the brand and purchase intentions. Practitioners interested in expanding into majority-Muslim markets should also consider the use of faith-based messages and religious morals when planning CrM campaigns.
Originality/value
While preliminary studies have already attempted to provide knowledge about the impact of COVID-19 on individuals’ health and well-being, potential effects on consumers’ decisions and behavior have not been considered much and are yet to be empirically investigated. This original research is among the first to provide insights about the potential use of COVID-19 cause to shape consumer purchase intention and behavior. This will strengthen our cross-cultural appreciation of the disparities in consumer perception of CrM among Muslim and non-Muslim communities.
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Several studies have examined sponsor‐cause congruence as an influence on consumer response to cause marketing campaigns. This paper aims to assess the relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
Several studies have examined sponsor‐cause congruence as an influence on consumer response to cause marketing campaigns. This paper aims to assess the relationship between sponsor‐cause congruence and consumer responses to cause marketing programs. In addition, it aims to test the possible existence of an interaction of congruence and service type of a cause sponsor (utilitarian vs hedonic) on consumer response.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2×2 experimental design was used to assess the impact of congruence and firm type. A total of 176 students participated in the main experiment. Sponsor‐cause linkages were presented using mock press releases.
Findings
Results indicated no main effects differences existed for the sponsorship response variables collectively, but perceived sincerity and attitude toward sponsor were significantly more positive for congruent sponsor‐cause linkages and attitude toward sponsor was significantly more positive for utilitarian sponsors. The congruence‐service type interaction was significant.
Research limitations/implications
Findings based on parings of two high equity brands with two well‐known causes. Future research should consider impact of sponsor and cause prominence on consumer response.
Practical implications
Sponsorship managers must go beyond examining a cause's audience characteristics to insure a good match between the values of the brand and cause. Also, findings suggest that sponsors that market hedonic services face unique challenges communicating their involvement in cause sponsorships.
Originality/value
Results can assist sponsorship managers better understand the relationship between sponsor‐cause congruence and the nature of the service their firms offer and their impact on shaping consumer response to cause marketing activity.
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Akansha Singh and Govind Swaroop Pathak
The recent development in the scholarship of cause-related marketing (CRM) highlights the growing popularity of this field of research. CRM is one of the forms of communicating…
Abstract
Purpose
The recent development in the scholarship of cause-related marketing (CRM) highlights the growing popularity of this field of research. CRM is one of the forms of communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR). Although CSR is being extensively studied as a field of research, researchers have made limited efforts to review the development and progression of CRM research. Being an embryonic research field, a deeper understanding of the current state of CRM research and future research propositions is required. This study aims to fill this gap by providing a bibliometric review of the CRM research published in the Web of Science (WoS) database.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric literature review has been conducted of the papers published in WoS database to map the field of research in CRM. Various techniques, namely, citation analysis, co-citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, co-occurrence analysis and bibliographic coupling have been incorporated, and analysis has been provided.
Findings
The findings highlight the important themes and research areas focused by CRM researchers. The study throws light on the important research avenues present in the field of CRM.
Originality/value
The findings offer both academic and practical implications. The present study is a novel study exploring the scholarship of CRM using the bibliometric analysis technique.
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Yuhei Inoue, Cody T Havard and Richard L Irwin
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of employees’ involvement with the sponsored sport and cause in determining their beliefs about cause-related sport…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of employees’ involvement with the sponsored sport and cause in determining their beliefs about cause-related sport sponsorship.
Design/methodology/approach
Respondents completed a survey that included the measures of sport involvement, cause involvement, and sponsorship beliefs adapted from previous studies. The final sample included 131 attendees who identified themselves as employees of sponsors of a cause-related sport event in a web-based post-event survey. A multiple regression analysis was performed to test hypotheses.
Findings
Despite the prevailing logic that companies can enhance the perception of goodwill by sponsoring sport that is important to their employees, employees’ sport involvement was found to have no effect on their sponsorship beliefs. In contrast, cause involvement alone explained a large amount of the variance in those beliefs.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to the literature by indicating that how employees evaluate cause-related sport sponsorship may be different from their evaluation process of traditional sport sponsorship without the cause affiliation. This research highlights the need to conduct further internal marketing research specific to cause-related sport sponsorship.
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Kushagra Kulshreshtha, Naval Bajpai, Vikas Tripathi and Gunjan Sharma
Cause-related marketing (CrM) is one of the effective marketing concepts which draw high public exposure and make the cause and the organization known in the market. Further, it…
Abstract
Purpose
Cause-related marketing (CrM) is one of the effective marketing concepts which draw high public exposure and make the cause and the organization known in the market. Further, it develops a higher inclination of the customers associating themselves with CrM-related campaigns. In this regard, CrM campaigns generally take hedonic products into consideration. The purpose of this paper (comprises two studies) is to: study 1, examine the attributes leading to successful CrM campaign and afterward when the results of Study 1 were found in line with the existing literature; and, Study 2, empirically examine the consumer preference for hedo-utilitarian products type in the CrM context.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 316 respondents participated in the survey. For selecting the appropriate research technique under the CrM study, the systematic review was conducted to arrive at a decision. Finally, conjoint analysis, a decompositional approach, was used for its ability to provide real-world setup to the respondents and keeping the social desirability bias at the minimum while assessing the consumer preference in the context of CrM.
Findings
Much literature is available in favor of using hedonic products for successful CrM activities. However, none has conceptualized the hedo-utilitarian products that have an equally fair chance to succeed under CrM strategy. The present study confirmed the relevance of hedo-utilitarian products (utilitarian products having hedonic features) for attracting the consumers having cognitive and affective responses altogether.
Practical implications
The novel concept of hedo-utilitarian product is introduced and empirically examined. The propositions and findings will facilitate the organizations in developing the products and marketing strategies in the context of CrM, giving them the option beyond the two product categories, i.e. hedonic and utilitarian. Accordingly, the companies may also focus and strategize for the “causmers,” i.e. the consumers who pay heed to the cause of the campaign during the purchase.
Originality/value
While several of the dimensions in marketing have been explored, CrM is the least explored area in the Asian region. The attributes that may affect CrM were taken all together as another product feature/attribute under conjoint analysis exploring the attributes affecting CrM most, eventually, leading to higher consumer preference. Further, the concept of hedo-utilitarian products was introduced, empirically examined and recommended to future researchers for bringing it forward.
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