The Role of Structural Factors of Cause related Marketing Campaigns in Consumer Response

Abstract

Nowadays, Cause-related marketing is one of the common strategies to encourage consumers to buy products which simultaneously support a social cause. However, few studies have been conducted in Iran`s social context about how consumers respond to this type of marketing strategy. Therefore, the authors of this study, using two separate 2*2 factorial experimental designs, examined how consumers respond to the structural factors of cause related marketing campaigns.In first study, after examining two structural factor of campaign from company`s side through a 2(corporate reputation:high/low)*2(donation amount:high/low) factorial between subject design, The results show that when donation amount is high and corporate reputation is good, perceived altruism motivation, perceived price fairness, campaign credibility, campaign attitude, purchase intention and word of mouth is significantly higher than when the donation amount is low and corporate reputation is inappropriate. Also, in the second study, the role of two structural factors campaign from cause`s was examined in a 2(cause importance: important/unimportant) *2(cause-product fit: high/low) factorial experimental design. The results show that, except the role of cause-product fit in perceived price fairness, in other states these factors influence on the cognitive, affective and conative aspect of consumer response. In addition, the results of second study suggest that when a cause importance is low, a high cause-product fit can lead to more positive response.

Keywords

• cause related marketing
• consumer response
• donation amount
• corporate reputation
• cause importance