Cause-Related Marketing: An Exploratory Study of Campaign Donation Structures Issues

TLDR

Cause‑related marketing has become a popular promotional tool that generally benefits firms, consumers, and nonprofits, but raises ethical concerns and potential negative effects. The study explores how structural elements of CRM campaigns—such as donation size, donation‑to‑price ratio, deadlines, caps, and promotion level—affect consumer perceptions. The authors conducted an exploratory analysis of CRM campaigns, evaluating donation quantification, donation‑to‑price ratio, deadline and cap presence, and promotional intensity. Results show that these structural factors shape consumer perceptions, offering managers actionable insights for designing more effective CRM communication tactics.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, cause-related marketing (CRM) has become a popular and unique promotional tool for brands. Academic research indicates outcomes of such campaigns are generally positive for all stakeholders. Consumers feel they are making a difference, firms benefit from improved public image and increased sales, and the cause or nonprofit organization receives increased publicity and funding. However, there are ethical issues involved when linking a firm with a nonprofit organization as well as potential negatives (Smith and Stodghill 1994; Andreasan 1996; Meyer 1999; Polonsky and Wood 2001). An exploratory research study was undertaken to understand the impact of the structural elements of cause-related marketing campaigns, including how the donation is quantified, the size of the donation relative to the price of the product, the presence of donation deadlines and caps, and the level of promotion used to publicize the campaign. Findings suggest that the structural elements of cause-related marketing campaigns do influence consumers' perceptions of the campaigns. Based on these results, implications for CRM campaign managers and future research ideas are provided. This information will help practitioners, including marketing managers, advertising managers and advertising creative professionals to design the most effective communication tactics for a cause-related marketing campaign.