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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A corporation’s reputation is one its most important assets, affecting its competitive advantage as well as building both financial and social success. Corporate reputation depends on how the company conducts or is perceived as conducting its business. The ability to build a sustainable corporate reputation is more important than ever before as stakeholders are more educated, more knowledgeable, and more demanding. This paper discusses the efforts of two of the largest financial service organisations in Cyprus to build a sustainable corporate reputation through an emphasis on Cause‐Related Marketing. It paper analyses the effectiveness of such cause related marketing for building and sustaining a corporate reputation.

This chapter aims to understand to what extent the use of cause-related marketing, can become a tool of strategic positioning and differentiation for influencing consumption decisions of a critical type of external stakeholder, that is, the customers (participants and non-participants), in the context of school sports events. Accordingly, quantitative empirical research was carried out resorting to a questionnaire. A sample of 829 pupils in mainland Portugal was gathered, covering both participants and non-participants in School Sports events associated with food products, namely, Compal Air and Nestum Rugby. The results reveal that customers’ perception of the attributes of social responsibility and of the general attributes of the brand has a positive influence on consumption decisions, especially with regard to participants in this type of event. In addition, individual motivations, determining the decision to participate or not in events, are found to influence the consumption decision.

To date, cause-related sport marketing (CRSM) has not received much academic attention. However, it is particularly relevant given recent estimates on the amounts that will be spent on cause-related efforts in 2002. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to set forth a framework for managing cause-related sport marketing programs. The framework is derived using both past research on causerelated marketing and branding theory. It theorizes the necessary conditions that must be present if the CRSM program is to result in the intended outcomes of 1) enhanced brand image, 2) enhanced brand loyalty and 3) consumer brand switching.

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.

Introduction: In today’s world of increasing competition, diminishing product differentiation, higher customer expectations, easy product replacements and lowering brand loyalty, organisations are evolving new marketing strategies for economic, societal and sustainability. Cause-related marketing (hereafter referred to as CRM), a strategic sustainable philanthropic practice, is the upcoming form of CSR. CRM plays an instrumental role in achieving self-brand connection and brand loyalty.

Purpose: To explore, integrate and interconnect concepts of CRM and self-brand connection to get more insights into the imperative role of CRM strategy in developing self-brand connections that can lead to brand loyalty in the most sustainable way. For this, CRM and self-brand connection, as proposed by societal marketing and branding literature, were explored. This chapter is a propositional inventory where the researcher has explored the antecedents of CRM strategy and its role in developing brand loyalty through self-brand connection.

Methodology: This chapter is centred upon the existing literature on sustainability, CRM and branding to understand better the relationships between dimensions and consequences of CRM and its interlinkage with brand loyalty.

Findings: The literature recommends that selected dimensions: Cause-brand fit, product type, altruistic motivation and brand credibility determine the effectiveness of CRM strategy. It also establishes the profound impact of attitude towards brand, brand perception and brand distinctiveness on self-brand connection. A theoretical framework based on the existing literature represents an amalgamated groundwork for developing effective, sustainable CRM strategies in conjunction with the self-brand connection. The proposed framework is distinct as no study conjoins the abovementioned concepts and aims to comprehend whether this integration is brand loyalty.

Cause-related B2B marketing programs involve sponsoring organisations working with B2B suppliers with the help of non-profit organisations (NPOs) on practises relating to environmental friendliness, workforce diversity, human rights, safety, philanthropy and business ethics. The study aims to identify the combinatory factors driving the adoption of Digital B2B platforms for managing cause-related B2B marketing programs.

The study adopts an innovative approach of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on data collated from top corporations in India supporting cause-related B2B marketing programs. Sponsoring organisations and NPO dyads (i.e. survey both) filled out an email survey on 264 cause-related B2B marketing programs.

The study establishes that the combination of technological, organisational and environmental factors would lead to the adoption of Digital B2B platforms in managing cause-related B2B marketing programs. The study identifies six combinations of these factors for adopting Digital B2B platforms within and across sponsoring organisations and NPOs.

The study findings would aid cause-related B2B marketers in developing Digital B2B platforms’ capabilities by understanding the different combinations of factors driving adoption. Digital B2B platforms’ capabilities can improve market performance if developed as core competencies.

The study findings would enable improvements in the implementation and performance of cause-related B2B marketing programs. Better management of cause-related B2B marketing programs would help increase beneficiary coverage and the realisation of societal goals.

To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to apply the TOE framework in conjunction with complexity theory to explain the diffusion of adoption of Digital B2B platforms for managing cause-related B2B marketing programs.

Prior research has investigated the benefit of companies that engage in cause-related marketing initiatives. However, this prior research has not adequately examined cause-related marketing situations when brands raise awareness for a cause without contribution of tangible resources to the cause (i.e. awareness marketing); thus, the purpose of this paper is to introduce and test awareness marketing as a new type of cause-related marketing.

Through four experimental studies with different sample sources, the authors introduce and examine a new type of cause-related marketing (awareness marketing) as well as identify mediating explanatory mechanisms.

Awareness marketing produces similarly heightened purchase intentions to other types of cause-related marketing (e.g. financial donation) when compared to situations where cause-related marketing is not used. Awareness marketing can also lead to higher brand authenticity and brand originality perceptions in some situations when compared to cause-related marketing incorporating a financial donation component or when no cause-related marketing is used. Brand perceptions and consumers’ perceived self-brand connection mediate the relationship from cause-related marketing to purchase intentions.

This research is limited by conducting studies in only experimental conditions and in one culture. Theoretical implications are provided to the literature on brand authenticity and self-brand connection. In doing so, the authors explain why awareness marketing is evaluated differently than other types of cause-related marketing or marketing without any cause reference.

Marketers would benefit from using awareness marketing (i.e. raising awareness for a cause without direct contribution to the cause) as a lower investment alternative to traditional cause-related marketing efforts.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to introduce awareness marketing as a new type of cause-related marketing and compare it to traditional types of cause-related marketing, thereby providing novel contributions as to how cause-related marketing can effectively increase purchase intentions without making a financial, product or other tangible contribution to a cause.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of four types of cause-related marketing (CRM) strategies on consumer responses to a fashion brand and to assess the relative effectiveness of each.

An experiment was conducted with young adult consumers (n=344) and undergraduates (n=415). Using a between-subject design, each participant was randomly assigned to one of four CRM scenarios and completed a questionnaire.

Across all CRM conditions, the effect of CRM strategy on consumer responses (e.g. perceived brand distinctiveness/credibility/attractiveness, customer–brand identification, brand attitude, customer loyalty) was significant. The effect of corporate social responsibility image on perceived brand distinctiveness was strongest for cause-related event marketing, followed by cause-related experiential marketing, transaction-based CRM and sponsorship-linked marketing.

By providing information about the relative effectiveness of four types of CRM strategies, this research aids fashion marketers in their selection of the CRM strategy that generates the best performance. Adding an event component to their CRM activity would increase the effect of CRM strategies on consumer responses.

This research contributes to the extant literature on CRM by identifying types of CRM strategies, their relative effectiveness, and key variables (e.g., C–B identification) that explain the impact of CRM strategies on consumer responses.