Customers’ Imprint about Cause Related Marketing Driven through Experiential Marketing

Abstract

Considering the promising growth of Organic Food in the Asia region, this paper attempts to Cause related Marketing is the new marketing science that are driving organisations, by using experiential marketing to create recall for their brands in the minds of customers and consumers alike. Organisations are entangled in heavy competition, changing consumer’s tastes and preferences, volatile markets and disruptions that are challenging their existence. Societal marketing concept which evolved in 1970’s drew the path for marketers to inculcate the spirit of empathy and authenticity in the brands. A new term entered marketing – Cause Related marketing where marketers identified a cause and converted it into their marketing promotions so as to effectively connect the brand with its target market. Experiences lead to brand preferences and brand purchases. In today’s world, brands are connecting with their target group using experiential marketing. This research study emphasises on understanding the customers perception regarding cause related marketing which is driven through experiential marketing, using Focused Group Discussions (FGD’s) a sample of 50 respondents were divided into 2 major groups based on the differentiation of demographics so as to not bring any similarity in the option selected using the FGD technique. The study extracted that the customers perceive the experiential marketing as a PR stunt. PR stunt also correlated with the dimension of Brand building. Thus, the research finding threw a new light that experiences using cause related marketing do drive people to accept a product / brand and also creates loyalty among the people which can lead to repeat purchase or referrals.