Nowadays firms are dealing with fierce competition and are "forced" to keep launching new products and strategies that would attract consumers'attention. One of the fastest growing marketing strategies - Cause-related marketing (CRM) addresses these trends as well as benefits from them. Cause-related marketing is a strategic partnership between a for-profit and non-profit organization. The contributions to the cause are made via consumer'purchases. As many statistics prove, CRM is a very effective strategy resulting in higher sales, enhanced image as well as loyalty. The question remains: how is it possible? What marketing concepts and techniques stand behind CRM? The diploma theses answers those questions and explains most important markteting and psychologial concepts from consumer's and firm's perspective.

Cause-related marketing is an emerging area within the marketing discipline, originating in the United States in the 1980s. This thesis defines the term cause-related marketing as a marketing strategy whereby the firm makes a contribution, financial or otherwise, to a nonprofit organisation(s) contingent upon the customer engaging in a revenue providing exchange that satisfies business and individual objectives. This strategy may include additional elements such as sponsorship, sales promotion, co-branding and employee involvement. -- In examining the literature relating to cause-related marketing, a need for further research was identified for a number of reasons. First, there is considerable investment and growth in this strategy both in Australia and overseas. Second, academic and practitioner research have indicated strong consumer support for the concept of cause-related marketing, yet there has been limited evidence to date regarding the effectiveness of this strategy, especially in comparison to other marketing strategies. Finally, in an increasingly challenging business environment, marketing practitioners are seeking to explore new strategies and the efficacy of traditional forms of marketing communications is subject to debate. As such, this thesis explored the following research questions: What is the impact of cause-related marketing on the consumer's response in terms of attitude to the strategy, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention? Do consumers respond more positively toward cause-related marketing than toward sponsorship or sales promotion? To address these questions, an experimental research design incorporating self-administered questionnaires was used. The major finding of this research is that consumers may have a more favourable attitude to cause-related marketing than to either sponsorship or sales promotion, however the brand must be perceived to have a natural association or fit with the cause. Further, cause-related marketing has the ability to engender a more favourable change in attitude to the brand than does sales promotion. This change in attitude is affected by the consumer's attitude to the strategy itself. This study did not, however, demonstrate that exposure to cause-related marketing, sponsorship or sales promotion had a significant effect on purchase intention. Finally, neither gender nor personal values have been shown to influence the above outcomes. The findings of this research have a number of practical implications for the effective use of cause-related marketing.

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Cause-Related Marketing(CRM), which was initiated by American Express Company in 1981 to support the arts in San Francisco raising fund. Many academic researches have tried to discover the benefit and risk of CRM since 1990s. Print advertisement is a main channel for CRM. Therefore, how to structure CRM ads, especially for the focus of visual component, will be important in CRM campaigns. Based on previous studies relevant to charitable donations, this study compares the effects of cause-focused and product-focused CRM ads through experimental design method. In addition, donation magnitude and consumer mood are also considered to observe how they sway the effectiveness of CRM ads. The present study employs an experimental design to investigate the effects of the types of visual component (cause-focused vs. product-focused), donation magnitude (5% of invoice price vs. 20% of invoice price) and consumer mood (positive vs. negative) on CRM effectiveness. A 2x2x2 factorial design is conducted. Eight different scenarios are established and the ad effects are measured by purchase intention and attitude toward the brand. The results indicate that the cause-focused ads are more effective than the product-focused ads. Although donation magnitude does not make a difference in a cause-focused ad, but low donation magnitude leads to higher purchase intention when a product-focused ad is presented. Positive mood facilitates the advertising effects of cause-focused ads. Finally, low donation magnitude and positive mood enhance the advertising effects of product-focused ads. The implications of these findings are discussed as well as the limitations and directions for future research.

Past research has demonstrated that people prefer donating to a single identified donation recipient rather than abstractly presented donation recipients (i.e., the identifiable victim effect). The current study applies this conventional wisdom to cause-related marketing (CRM) advertising campaigns. The results show that the identifiable victim effect might not always be powerful within CRM advertising campaigns. Specifically, an advertisement with message evidence having statistical information about donation recipients is more effective for the people who possess an independent self-construal level. In contrast, a CRM ad with anecdotal message evidence about an identifiable donation recipient is effective for the people with an interdependent self-construal level. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed. / text

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As companies commit an increasing number of socially irresponsible behaviors, high profile corporate transgressions have become major social problems in many countries. Corporate transgressions are defined as serious violations of social norms and standards (White, Bandura, & Bero, 2009). Corporate transgressions tend to detrimentally affect the relationship between companies and their consumers, leading to negative consumer responses to the brand and product (Aaker, 2012; Lindenmeier, Schleer, & Pricl, 2011; Ingram, Skinner, & Tayler, 2005). Many companies use short-term marketing activities to improve consumer responses; however, these recovery strategies have temporary effects (Beverland, Chung, & Kates, 2009). There is no doubt that building long-term relationships with consumers is vital for companies to promote positive responses. Cause-related marketing (CRM) has been one of the most widely used activities to build long-term relationships with consumers because it can demonstrate a company’s sincere commitment to social responsibility (Ailawadi & Keller, 2004; Gupta & Pirsch, 2006; Kotler & Keller, 2006; Nan & Heo, 2007; Varadarajan & Menon,1988). Despite the fact that CRM can help build long-term relationships with consumers, there is a dearth of empirical study on the effectiveness of CRM as a corporate crisis recovery strategy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of CRM as a recovery strategy in changing consumers’ psychological (attitudes) and behavioral (purchase intentions) responses after corporate transgressions. More specifically, this study will examine the effects of corporate commitment types (time vs financial), degrees (long-term vs short-term and large vs small amount), and fit (high vs low) conditions between a cause and a company on consumer responses. A total of 213 college students (94 women, 119 men), between the ages of 18 and 25, participated in this experimental study. The participants were randomly assigned to one of eight between-subjects treatment conditions in which they read two short scenarios about a company’s (Brand X) corporate transgression and commitment to a CRM (sponsoring the Special Olympic games or the Human Society) campaign. Manipulation checks were conducted on time commitment, financial commitment, and fit conditions. The results of CFA, using LISREL 9.1, support the reliability and validity of all measures. The composite reliabilities (Cronbach's α) of the two constructs (attitudes and purchase intentions) are .72 and .798 respectively. The average variance extracted (AVE) of the attitudes (.593) and the purchase intentions (.611). For the convergent validity, all estimated loadings of indicators for the underlying constructs are significant (the smallest t-value = 4.32, p < .05). For the discriminant validity, as indicated earlier, AVEs for two constructs are, .593 for consumer attitudes and .611 for consumer purchase intentions, are greater than the squared correlation (.454) between two constructs. In addition, the goodness-of-fit statistics show a good overall fit (χ2 = 131. 57, p > .01, CFI= .94, GFI = .93, and RMSEA = .051). The results of the current study revealed that the company’s long-term and large financial commitments to a CRM campaign significantly changed participants' psychological and behavioral responses. However, the fit conditions did not significantly affect consumers’ response changes. The 2 x 2 x 2 interaction effects revealed that the time commitments play a more significant role in changing consumer responses than financial commitments and fit conditions. Furthermore, the combination of a long-term and a large financial commitment with a high fit condition showed the most significant consumer response changes. These findings support the fact that consumers value a company’s CRM activities when they are aware of the company’s sincere commitment. Hence, it is vital for marketing managers to demonstrate their consistently support to causes, rather than making a quick decision to engage in CRM activities. In addition, the findings of this study confirm that gaining positive responses from consumers takes a great effort for companies. Thus, companies should be conscious not to commit socially irresponsible behaviors that damage their relationships with consumers.

Ett hållbart agerande har gått från att vara en trend till att bli ett måste för välfärden av framtida generationer. EU har genom sina hållbarhetsmål försökt påverka länder att bli mer klimatsmarta, vilket både företag och konsumenter är eniga om är ett orosmoment som måste förbättras. Den största konsumentgruppen i Sverige är millennials och de har ett attityd- beteende gap gentemot hållbar konsumtion. De tycker det är viktigt att konsumera hållbart men agerar inte enlighet med detta. Genom cause related marketing (CRM), kan företag influera konsumenter att stödja ett gott syfte genom konsumtion samtidigt som de själva tjänar på det. Att arbeta mot ett specifikt syfte är en trend som lär hålla i sig men det är viktigt att företag tänker igenom sin kampanj innan de marknadsför den. Tidigare studier på CRM har nämligen visat att millennials kan vara kritiska mot denna typ av marknadsföringsstrategi, men om företagen använder det på rätt sätt så kan det vara gynnsamt för både konsumenter, företag och syfte. Våra fokusområden i denna studie är hållbar konsumtion, millennials och CRM, vilka vi valt att kombinera till en frågeställningen som lyder: Hur motiveras millennials till hållbar konsumtion genom CRM? Studien syftar till att skapa en djupare förståelse för millennials motiv för hållbar konsumtion och hur CRM kan uppmuntra detta. Studien har utgått från tidigare forskning inom de två ämnesområdena hållbar konsumtion och CRM, för att sedan knytas samman genom konsumenters bakomliggande motiv. Detta sammanställdes i en teoretisk modell för hur CRM spelar in på hållbar konsumtion. Studien har en kvalitativ karaktär där åtta semi-strukturerade djupintervjuer genomfördes i kombination med projektiva tekniker. Respondenterna valdes ut genom ett bekvämlighetsurval, och den insamlade datan transkriberades för att senare kodas. En tematisk analys har genomförts för att analysera empirin, och resulterade i fyra globala teman: hållbara influenser, uppmuntran, insikt och autencitet. Resultatet visar att det framförallt är genom egoistiska motiv som millennials motiveras till hållbar konsumtion. De altruistiska motiven har också en betydande roll, men av en indirekt karaktär, medan egoistiska motiv har en direkt påverkan på köpintentionen. Dock måste millennials vara mottagliga för CRM för att överväga att köpa produkter från en CRM kampanj. Vi vill även poängtera vikten av en väl utformad kampanj, då detta kan väga upp för andra bristande faktorer. CRM har således potential att minska attityd-beteende gapet och motivera millennials till hållbar konsumtion. Slutligen diskuteras teoretiskt bidrag, praktiska rekommendationer till företag, direktioner för fortsatt forskning samt samhälleliga och etiska implikationer.

This thesis concerns with effectiveness of cause related marketing, the promotion tool, by which the firm tries to positively influence relations with consumers. In first three chapters the tool of cause related marketing is presented, some examples of successful foreign and also home campaigns are given, and facts about perception and attitudes of American consumers especially the Millenial generation members toward the cause related marketing are placed here. In next four chapters the thesis concerns with own research of attitudes of Czech millenials, analyses the outcomes and compares the differences in answers according to sex, age and the place of living. At the end some contrasts in the attitudes of Czech and American consumers are studied.

Au sein de cette thèse, j’examine l’influence de l’identité du consommateur (ex. matérialisme, construction de soi) sur les stratégies marketing ciblant les jeunes consommateurs (millénaire).Dans l’Essai 1, j’explore comment les consommateurs matérialistes peuvent être encouragés à agir de manière pro-sociale en actionnant leur motivation de recherche de prestige pendant la consommation de produits de luxe et comment les marques de luxe peuvent maximiser la participation des consommateurs via des campagnes de cause-related marketing centrées sur le produit.Dans l’Essai 2, je déploie la théorie des coûts d’interaction sociale plus bas pour étudier les effets de l’individualisme (vs. collectivisme) sur le choix de répondre à son besoin d’appartenance via l’interaction sociale digitalement-médiée. / In this dissertation, I examine the influence of consumer identity (e.g., materialism, self-construal) on marketing strategy targeting young consumers (i.e., millennials).In Essay 1, I explore how materialistic consumers can be nudged to act prosocially by leveraging their status-seeking motivations in the context of luxury consumption, and luxury brands will maximize participation of consumers by utilizing product-linked cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns.In Essay 2, I investigate the effects of individualism (vs. collectivism) on preferences for meeting belonging needs through digitally mediated social interaction, through the lens of lower social interaction costs.