The Effects of Cause-Related Marketing on Company and Brand Attitudes

Abstract

Cause-related marketing, a practice of strategic philanthropy, has

gained currency among firms seeking both social and economic benefits

simultaneously. Unlike previous findings that have mainly shown the

positive effects of cause-related marketing, this study focuses on when

cause-related marketing efforts can backfire. Corporate credibility

(high/low) and product-cause relatedness (risk related/non-risk

related/unrelated) were manipulated so that participants were

presented with six different cause-related marketing contexts. According

to the results, attitude toward the company was mainly affected by the

level of corporate credibility; participants in the low corporate credibility

condition showed a less favorable company attitude. In addition to the

main effect of corporate credibility, product-cause relatedness determined consumers attitude toward the brand; cause-related

marketing adversely affected brand attitude when there was an

association between the cause and the products risk.