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The objectives of this study are threefold: to delineate the phenomenon of “You Share, We Donate” (YSWD) campaigns and what distinguishes them from sales-based cause-related marketing; to contrast the effectiveness of YSWD and sales-based cause-related marketing campaigns and provide an explanation for the differences in the effectiveness; to explore boundary conditions of the proposed differences.

Three experiments were conducted to empirically test the differential effect of campaign formats (i.e. YSWD vs sales-based cause-related marketing), the underlying mechanism and structural as well as contextual features moderating the differential effect.

The findings suggest that YSWD messages elicit consumers’ message-sharing intentions more than traditional cause-related marketing messages. The effect is explained by consumers’ sense of empowerment and can be enhanced through donation cap non-specification. The findings further indicate that YSWD campaigns are especially fruitful in low power distance cultures.

This study contributes toward corporate donation campaign literature by focusing on the usage of social media.

From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

This paper extends cause-related marketing literature by not only introducing the phenomenon of YSWD campaigns to the literature but also exploring strategies to enhance the effectiveness of such campaigns and shedding light on an outcome beyond the sales impact of cause-related marketing campaigns, i.e. an increase of visibility in social media. From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

The aim of the article is to analyze the effect of cause-related marketing on the attitude–behaviour gap of green consumption in the cosmetics industry. Specifically, the authors examine the relationship between attitude towards the environment, attitude towards green consumption, subjective norms of green consumption, green consumption intention, green consumption behaviour and cause-related marketing.

A cross-sectional research design was used to test the results of a random sample of 241 respondents and quantitative research was conducted using the data collected through an online questionnaire.

The research expanded the current knowledge on the effect of cause-related marketing on consumers’ green purchase behaviour and the findings suggested that green cosmetics producers and sellers should clearly define their target audience before choosing the type of cause-related marketing, as it mainly influences those consumers who have a positive attitude towards green consumption.

The implications of the research are relevant for marketing specialists, managers and agencies who are looking to promote green cosmetics products.

Before promoting green cosmetics products, it is important to understand who the target consumer is and whether they have a positive attitude towards the environment, green consumption and also if they are affected by acquaintances’ opinions.

The study contributes to the already existing academic literature by providing a greater understanding of the effect of cause-related marketing on the attitude–behaviour gap of green consumption.

Limited research has explored why and how cause-related marketing on social media influences consumers' responses. Drawing upon balance theory and consistency theory, this study aims to identify the mechanism of cause-related marketing on social media.

Data were collected from a sample of 360 users of cause-related marketing campaigns on social media and analyzed using structural equation modeling in Mplus 8.0.

The three types of congruence – self-image congruence, brand-image congruence and value congruence – can serve as sub-dimensions of perceived fit between a consumer, brand and cause of a cause-related marketing campaign on social media. Importantly, these perceived fit sub-dimensions positively influence community identification and, therefore, influence consumer citizenship behaviors.

The findings provide theoretical and practical contributions for a brand to undertake cause-related marketing on social media.

This study clarifies the myth of the perceived fit of cause-related marketing on social media and examines the perceived fit sub-dimensions’ mechanism of consumers' responses through community identification.

Cause-related marketing – linking product sales with donations to a cause – are popular with consumers because they produce warm-glow feelings (the positive route). But when they involve large donations, they may trigger consumer scepticism, reducing the warm glow (the negative route). Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether large donations in cause-related marketing can produce consumer scepticism and reduce the warm-glow effect and positive attitude towards the retailer.

An experiment varying the donation size (large, medium, small) in a cause-related marketing offer run by an office equipment retailer is set up. Hypotheses are tested using bootstrapping regression analyses.

The negative route has the greater effect: scepticism towards the offer mediates the relationship between donation size and the warm glow. Furthermore, scepticism towards a large donation is higher (lower) for respondents scoring low (high) on altruism and high (low) on familiarity with cause-related marketing.

When using cause-related marketing, retailers should choose their features and target audience carefully in order to reduce scepticism, e.g., small donations should be offered in promotions targeting consumers who are familiar with cause-related marketing and show low altruism.

This study contributes to the recent research examining the negative effects of cause-related marketing by explicitly conceptualising and measuring scepticism towards cause-related marketing. The findings are also valuable because they indicate the importance of a shift in focus, away from the conventional question of cause-related marketing effectiveness to the more specific and under-investigated problem of the appropriate core target consumers.

Cause‐related marketing activities are increasingly becoming a meaningful part of corporate marketing plans. This paper aims to examine the relationship between the company, cause and customer, and how fit between these three groups influences consumer response via generating a positive attitude toward the company‐cause alliance and purchase intent for the sponsored product.

Two studies are carried out, first among students and second among consumers.

Two studies (study 1=232 students, study 2=531 consumers) demonstrate that company‐cause fit improves attitude toward the company‐cause alliance and increases purchase intent. Additionally, this effect is enhanced under conditions of customer‐company and customer‐cause congruence, and the consumer's overall attitude toward the sponsoring company. Skepticism about the company's motivation for participating in a cause‐related marketing initiative was not relevant to consumer purchase decisions.

Results from these studies suggest that consumers may in fact make two different assessments of the sponsoring company in a cause‐related marketing campaign. One assessment may be more cognitive where the consumer compares his or her own identity to that of the company: “Is this company like me? Are our identities alike?” The second assessment is more affective or emotional: “Do I like this company? Do I feel positively about this company?” The strength of the consumer sample suggests that when building a cause‐related marketing program, marketing managers should select a cause that makes sense to the consumer to be a partner in the alliance, build a general positive feeling toward their brand, and limit any self‐serving promotion of the cause‐related marketing alliance to the target consumer population.

The paper provides useful information on the relationship between the company, cause and customer, and how the fit between these three groups influences consumer response.

The purpose of this paper is to describe research which tested a Thai model of cause‐related marketing's impact on corporate image.

Data were gathered from 1,071 participants in an established award winning cause‐related program in Thailand and analyzed using multiple regression.

Findings indicated that a cause‐related marketing program can create positive attitudes toward corporate image. One specific demographic characteristic of respondents, household income level, showed a significant influence with participants from lower income households developing more positive attitudes than those from higher income households.

The data were gathered from participants in one program only, hence future research could extend these findings to other programs to test their generalisability.

The proposed model serves as a basis for marketers to understand the influence of a cause‐related marketing program on the attitudes of Thai consumers who participated in the program toward corporate image. The results highlighted the importance of matching the company, its target market, participants in the program and the communication about the program to achieve desired results.

This empirical study contributes to cause‐related marketing research by focusing on a previously unresearched group, the participants in a program. In addition it was undertaken in an emerging market, Thailand.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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”.

The cultural values of a society are measured and compared with national and global index. The enumerate method is an original one.

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.

This study aims to investigate how gratitude, as compared to pride, can leverage the effectiveness of cause-related marketing, particularly a donation-based promotion. Drawing upon the appraisal tendency framework, this study establishes the underlying process driving these emotion effects. It also examines the moderating role of product type (hedonic vs utilitarian).

Five studies are conducted to test the predictions. Importantly, this study examines the predicted emotion effects across different sources of affect (dispositional, incidental and integral), different subject populations (students and Amazon Mechanical Turk panel) and different product categories (water bottle, chocolate and printer), leading to robust and generalizable findings.

Results show that gratitude (vs pride) increases the likelihood of purchasing a product with a donation-based promotion. This effect is mediated by gratitude’s other-responsibility appraisal and, in turn, increased reciprocity concerns (a serial mediation). Further, this study finds that how the gratitude (vs pride) effect is attenuated when the product is hedonic (but not utilitarian) in nature.

Past study on emotion and cause-related marketing has emphasized the role of negative emotions such as guilt. This study provides empirical evidence on the potential benefit of using positive emotions such as gratitude in cause-related marketing.

The implications of this study can benefit marketers by highlighting the use of gratitude appeals in their cause-related marketing campaigns.

The findings of the present research are significant because they highlight the potential role of a discrete positive emotion – gratitude – in leveraging the effectiveness of cause-related marketing and establish the underlying process driving this effect.

The purpose of this study is to explain how cognitive and emotional responses may influence decisions to purchase cause-related products.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.