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A strategy to communicate corporate social responsibility: cause related marketing and its dark side

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  • Ilaria Baghi
  • Enrico Rubaltelli
  • Marcello Tedeschi

Abstract

Cause related marketing (CRM) is a strategy that aims to communicate a company's striving for corporate social responsibility and to improve brand image. A strategy to increase consumers' emotional involvement toward a product–cause association is to describe the cause in vivid terms. In two experiments we investigated how vivid messages might increase the effectiveness of CRM strategy. We sought to demonstrate that a vivid description of the cause could influence consumers' preferences and trust in the effective use of money collected by selling the product. Experiment 1 results showed that individuals prefer products associated with a vivid message of the social cause rather than products associated with a pallid message. Experiment 2 results suggested that vivid messages induce more positive affective reactions and a higher trust in the effective use of money than pallid ones. In the final section, the implications of CRM for corporate social responsibility are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilaria Baghi & Enrico Rubaltelli & Marcello Tedeschi, 2009. "A strategy to communicate corporate social responsibility: cause related marketing and its dark side," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 15-26, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:16:y:2009:i:1:p:15-26
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.174
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    Cited by:

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    6. Peter Dobers & Delyse Springett, 2010. "Corporate social responsibility: discourse, narratives and communication," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(2), pages 63-69, March.
    7. Andrea Pérez & Ignacio Rodríguez del Bosque, 2015. "How Customer Support for Corporate Social Responsibility Influences the Image of Companies: Evidence from the Banking Industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(3), pages 155-168, May.
    8. Liyanage Chamila Roshani Perera & Jayawickrama Withanage Dushan Chaminda, 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Product Evaluation: The Moderating Role of Brand Familiarity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 245-256, July.
    9. Naïade Anido Freire & Leïla Loussaïef, 2018. "When Advertising Highlights the Binomial Identity Values of Luxury and CSR Principles: The Examples of Louis Vuitton and Hermès," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 565-582, July.
    10. Sungchul Choi & Alex Ng, 2011. "Environmental and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability and Price Effects on Consumer Responses," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 269-282, December.
    11. Shao‐Chi Chang & Heng‐Yu Chang, 2015. "Corporate Motivations of Product Recall Strategy: Exploring the Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Stakeholder Engagement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(6), pages 393-407, November.
    12. Jin-Hua Yang & Fa-Yu Lei & Jin-He Zhang & Ying Song & Chang Wang, 2023. "Altruistic Motivation, Moral Elevation and Tourism Support Behavior: An Empirical Study Based on Cause-Related Marketing in Tourist Destinations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-14, February.
    13. Xiaojun Fan & Nianqi Deng & Yi Qian & Xuebing Dong, 2022. "Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Cause-Related Marketing: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 339-360, January.
    14. Biedma Ferrer, José María & López Fernández, Macarena & Romero Fernández, Pedro M., 2017. "The collective labour agreement as a key tool for driving corporate social responsibility: banking sector analysis," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
    15. Rachel Esther Lim & Wei‐Na Lee, 2023. "Communicating corporate social responsibility: How fit, specificity, and cognitive fluency drive consumer skepticism and response," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 955-967, March.
    16. Menno D. T. Jong & Mark Meer, 2017. "How Does It Fit? Exploring the Congruence Between Organizations and Their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 71-83, June.
    17. Paolo Antonetti & Ilaria Baghi, 2021. "When Blame-Giving Crisis Communications are Persuasive: A Dual-Influence Model and Its Boundary Conditions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 59-78, August.
    18. Simphiwe Lincon Hlophe & Debbie Ellis, 2024. "Changing consumer attitudes to make the Corporate Social Responsibility investment in sustainable fish production, a worthwhile investment to corporates," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 344-356, January.
    19. Jeesun Kim & Sun Young Lee & Hyun Jee Oh, 2023. "The Effects of Message Specificity on Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communication: Testing Perceived Social Distance as a Mediator," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-17, December.
    20. SWIATKIEWICZ Olgierd, 2021. "The Wine Sector Management In Portugal: An Overview On Its Three-Dimensional Sustainability," Management of Sustainable Development, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 13(1), pages 39-48, June.
    21. Wen, Xiaohan (Hannah) & Kim, Shinhye & Bowen, Melanie, 2023. "Doing good by sharing messages: An investigation of “You Share, We Donate” campaigns and how they can attain viral success," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    22. Ouidade Sabri, 2018. "The Detrimental Effect of Cause-Related Marketing Parodies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 517-537, August.

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