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In many countries there is emerging concern regarding alliances between the pharmaceutical industry and health non‐profit organizations (NPOs), and the increase of co‐sponsored marketing activities such as disease awareness advertising. The current study aims to explore Australian women's perceptions of disease awareness advertising with differing sponsors, to determine whether their attitudes towards the sponsor and their reported behavioural intentions differ as a function of the perceived sponsor or co‐sponsor.

Older women (aged 50+) were approached by mall‐intercept method in a metropolitan area in New South Wales, Australia. Consenting participants were randomly assigned an advertisement with an NPO sponsor, pharmaceutical company sponsor, or a combination of the two (co‐sponsored). Each participant viewed advertisements for two health conditions (fibromyalgia and osteopenia) with the same sponsor manipulation, and completed a one‐page questionnaire after reading each advertisement.

Participants had significantly more positive attitudes towards the NPO‐sponsored advertisement than the pharmaceutical company‐sponsored advertisement or the co‐sponsored advertisement. Participants with more positive attitudes towards the sponsor were significantly more likely to report an intention to take action, such as to look for more information or to talk to their doctor.

The results suggest that an NPO‐sponsored advertisement promoting awareness about a disease or health condition is more effective without the co‐sponsorship of a pharmaceutical company.

This is the only identified research into attitudes towards sponsors of disease awareness advertising that considers pharmaceutical companies and health NPOs and is important, given the increasing trend of disease advertising and cause‐related marketing in Australia and internationally.

Attempts to clarify the concept of affinity and to distinguish it from other marketing‐related terms. Gives guidelines for differentiating three general levels of affinity groups, suggesting respective strategic implications. Offers a taxonomy for classifying sources from which types of affinity may emerge and provides a method for relating the affinity levels with the taxonomy in order to develop a marketing plan. Elaborates on future opportunities in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how exposure to a cause-related marketing (CRM) initiative involving sport teams affects attitude formation for the team and its amplification of purchase intention for team-branded merchandise. Specifically, this paper assessed the role of distinct measures (warmth, brand attitude, admiration and success) on purchase intention.

The hypothesized model was tested using a 2 (promotion: CRM vs non-CRM) × 2 (team: successful vs unsuccessful) between-subjects design. Following MANCOVA analysis, the moderating effect of success was explored within the sequential moderated mediation model where perceived warmth and brand attitude explicated the effect of CRM exposure on purchase intention.

The results of this paper suggest that a “Warmth Effect” played a prominent role in shaping consumer perception for sports teams when partnered with a non-profit brand in a CRM appeal. Perceived team success was revealed as moderator, while warmth, brand attitude served as serial mediators on purchase intention.

This paper provides evidence-based insights to sport marketers to leverage CRM strategy in strengthening brand-related outcomes. Sport marketers may find the CRM strategy useful for engaging “casual” fans. Further analysis is needed to determine the generalizability of this consumer response to CRM in other product domains.

Practical implications include leveraging CRM strategy to strengthen brand-related outcomes (i.e. perceived warmth, brand attitude and purchase intention), while also being mindful of the timing of CRM initiatives to optimize engagement. Sport marketers may find the CRM strategy useful for engaging “casual” fans.

This paper lends clarity to brand attitude formation in the context of CRM. The findings of this paper demonstrate the influence of perceived warmth, brand attitude and success on purchase intention.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how reference to a rival or favorite sports team within cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) campaigns affects fans’ intentions to support the cause. The purpose of the studies is to assess the perils of featuring a specific team in league-wide activations of cause-related marketing.

The research comprises three experiments. Study 1 employs CRSM advertising to test fans’ responses when rival or hometown team imagery is featured by Major League Baseball (MLB). Studies 2 and 3 utilize a press release to activate a cause partnership in MLB and the National Basketball Association (NBA) and assess the potential influence of team involvement and schadenfreude toward the rival team.

Contrary to previous research, results demonstrate that rival team presence in league-wide activation can reduce intentions to support the cause effort across both leagues, but not in all circumstances. The influence of rival team exposure on perceived sincerity is moderated by team involvement with the cause in MLB, but not the NBA. However, sincerity consistently enhances cause support across all studies. While conditional effects of schadenfreude are noted, it is not a significant moderator of cause support.

This research exposes the nuance of league-wide CRSM activations. Specifically, the rival team effect on perceived sincerity seems to be league dependent, and subject to team involvement with the cause. Moreover, these results are limited to the leagues studied.

League administrators and their cause-related partners should exercise due diligence when promoting their affiliation using specific teams and levels of involvement with the cause.

These studies produce results that differ from the limited prior research within the domain of league-wide CRSM, and therefore advance the conversation regarding how best to activate such campaigns.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the irrevocable role of cause-related marketing (CRM) and its research imperative, exploring its contemporary insights in and across international markets, toward scholarly and executive application.

This research is theoretical and it compiles and interrelates, in a multiperspective fashion, significant extant works in the field; focusing on how established and emergent variables and constructs can be leveraged, in order to develop insights into what does and does not work in international CRM.

Extant works on international CRM still present significant gaps pertaining to key questions. Furthermore, true understanding of CRM stems from comprehending consumers, both individually and collectively; and both their underlying and contextual motivators, factors and forces. This calls for a multiperspective and cross-disciplinary approach to CRM to that weaves in contextual (sociocultural, etc.) elements to the equation.

Limitations naturally pertain to the research's theoretical nature that requires empirical testing.

CRM offers consumers both the means and the ends of acquiring their target core value benefits, additionally or peripherally to their core purchase purpose; potentially making the difference between business/brand success and failure.

Through CRM, the contemporary consumer seeks product value benefits that transcend quality and functionality (etc.), to engulf abstract and intangible values pertaining to social, ethical, self-image and self-actualization factors.

The comprehensive review, contextual elucidations and cross-disciplinary perspectives of this paper originally present the scope, depth, complexity and gaps of the subject, and pave the way for the research that still needs to ensue.

The increasing importance of corporate social responsibility in recent years has been largely discussed, mainly as a part of business strategies to cope with growing environmental challenges. Discourses regarding corporate social responsibility intensified with the emergence of financial crisis. Many of these debates refer to the role CSR plays in society and reasons for a company to involve in supporting social causes in times of crisis.

This study investigates the effect of product quality and price fairness on consumer cause-related marketing (CRM) participation and also the moderating role of donation-related customer predispositions (i.e. empathy and cause importance) on this relationship.

Data for the study were obtained from 240 respondents. A structural equation modelling approach was used in analysing the data.

Results from the analysis indicate that fair pricing and product quality affect CRM participation. The findings also provide insights into the moderation role of empathy and cause importance.

Prior research studied the effect of promotion on CRM participation; however, this study examines the effect of product and price. The findings offer insight into issues of research and managerial interest, offering insightful implications to the academic and practitioner communities in developing countries, respectively.

Cause related marketing (CrM) has gained popularity in Europe within the past decade. Therefore, the authors aim to investigate corporate motive and the fit of a company brand with the CrM cause as determinants of CrM campaign success.

Conjoint analysis is applied to campaign evaluations from 278 students in Germany. Campaigns attached to laptop purchases supporting an African hospital with either medical (low fit) or IT (high fit) infrastructure and were based on altruistic, neutral, or profit‐oriented company motives.

The authors find that altruistic motives increase consumer evaluations. In contrast to their hypothesis, campaigns are evaluated more positively, when product cause fit is low.

Based on their findings, the authors suggest exploring the fit of CrM campaigns in more detail: future research might explicitly consider the congruence of a CrM donation with a company's product, with the brand's claim and philosophy, and with the supported NPO.

Companies should think twice before using CrM as means of profit maximization. When selecting an adequate cause, attention should be paid to the company brand and to a product's potential impact on society. Moreover, the donation type (money versus product) should be chosen in a way to clearly support the cause and to avoid potential allegation of aiming at an increased distribution of own products.

The authors apply conjoint analysis to corporate motive and cause‐brand fit; this integrated consumer evaluation appears more realistic than most existing studies. Based on their results, the authors develop diverse perspectives on fit in CrM. These may be applied in future research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the macro-environment influences consumer scepticism towards cause-related marketing (CRM), especially in a turbulent economic setting.

An exploratory qualitative research study utilising open-ended, semi-structured Skype interviews with 26 respondents was conducted in a country experiencing economic crisis.

The findings demonstrate that respondents hold a strong scepticism towards CRM campaigns and they are more negative towards the CRM campaigns initiated by foreign enterprises as compared to the domestic ones. This can be attributed to ethnocentrism, or even antipathy or animosity towards foreign companies due to crisis. Furthermore, results reveal that the political and legal elements of the macro-environment have an impact on consumer scepticism towards CRM campaigns, while the impact of the economic crisis itself did not seem to be equally significant.

This work contributes to the existing literature of CRM as it is the first study that explores the impact of macro-environmental elements on consumer scepticism towards CRM within an economic turbulence setting.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through a comparative historical analysis, the impact of a shift to a marketing‐driven (business‐oriented) philanthropic funding structure on NGOs, international businesses that fund charities, and the recipients of the funding for a water pump system in southern Africa.

The study deconstructs and dissects the introduction and acceptance of the PlayPumps water pump system by generating four historical funding‐structure models that typified the philanthropic funding at the time. Each time period is critically examined to investigate how changes toward marketing‐driven philanthropy affected the viability of the project.

The key finding is that by shifting to a marketing‐driven (business‐oriented) philanthropic funding structure, NGOs risk fundamentally disconnecting the funders and the recipients of the funding. Serious concerns arise regarding the role of businesses in driving the “overcommercialisation” of marketing‐driven philanthropy.

The funding‐structure models highlight some of the hidden costs of marketing‐driven philanthropic funding, but do not show what funding structure would be most efficient in better connecting international businesses and consumers with the charities they are supporting.

This analysis examines the underexplored intersection of business, marketing, consumerism and philanthropy.