• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.63-69
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• 2013

Purpose - Ethical consumption is the action of buying one product over another with an ethical idea in mind. It has gained in popularity since the 1990s with more emphasis being put on the power of consumer actions to create social, economic, and environmental change. Ethical consumption involves boycotts of certain products or brands as well as purchases linked to ethical issues. Cause-related marketing (the buying behavior of ethical consumption) involves a for-profit and non-profit entity teaming up to promote a product at the same time as promoting a social cause. Each time a consumer buys that product, a donation is made by the for-profit entity to the non-profit entity supporting the specific cause. Cause-related marketing has become a tremendously popular type of ethical consumption in recent years owing to its reputation of allowing companies to "do well by doing good." This study examines how consumers' perception of cause and attitude influence their attitude toward a cause-related marketing campaign and attempts to suggest implications for marketers. Research design, data, and methodology - First, this study was designed to examine the consumers' perception factors (cause involvement, attitude for cause, attitude for company and brand familiarity) in order to determine whether these factors have significantly affected consumers' attitude toward a cause-related marketing campaign. Second, this study developed a structural equation model and tested it empirically using survey data from 223 individual respondents. Respondents were undergraduate students in Chungnam. They were shown an existing real campaign message of cause-related marketing, and then filled out a questionnaire. Data were analyzed with SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 17.0 programs. Results - The hypotheses were tested using factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The study's results showed that brand familiarity, attitude to the company and attitude to the cause significantly affected consumers' attitude toward the cause-related marketing campaign and performance. In particular, attitude to the cause was significantly related to attitude and performance of the cause-related marketing campaign. However, the hypothesis about cause involvement was not supported with the results indicating that cause involvement did not affect consumers' attitude toward the cause-related marketing campaign. The findings underline the importance of consumer perceptions of the cause and the company and their attitude to the cause. They point to the importance of individual differences that influence consumer perceptions of the cause, the company and brand familiarity. Also of importance is the consumer's attitude to the cause. Conclusions - The findings suggest some practical implications in designing and implementing cause-related marketing campaigns. It is important to enhance brand familiarity and create a favorable attitude to the company and attitude to the cause before designing cause-related marketing campaigns. The rising popularity of cause-related marketing has been attributed to its potential to cut through advertising clutter. The findings in this study suggest that marketing campaigns supporting a cause make a difference.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.205-224
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• 2009

Social responsibility which a corporation should be aware of is increasing as it plays a more important role in society. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was taken by some huge entrepreneurs in the past. Conversely, CSR is prized one of important business activities for every corporate nowadays. Cause-related marketing draws particularly special attention among various CSRs, because it has a direct and positive effect on purchasing behavior. Marketing activity of Amway Korea is an excellent example of the cause-related marketing in Korea. Mid 2000s, some multilevel marketing firms had evaded the law, customer had negative attitude towards Amway Korea. Amway Korea, however, has overcome the difficulties by cause-related marketing, which is called campaign for Nutrilite's kid health. Present case examines the cause-related marketing, which Amway Korea has been doing for 10 years. Especially, we investigate specific factors, which differentiated CSR of Amway Korea from one of other firms. Lastly, we discuss a future action for Amway Korea's cause-related marketing and implications.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.7
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• pp.75-85
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine ways to vitalize cause related marketing (CRM) by proposing character T-shirts The campaign will employ Neo-Pop art, a genre popular with both companies and consumers. Study results are as follows: First, campaign T-shirts on the issue of human alienation resulting from digitalization can be utilized to generate financial profit that can be returned to society. This can lead to the acts of exchange for profit generation, public image improvemen of companies, and enhancement of their external status. As for the non-financial aspect, the campaign could lead to increased awareness of social issues and present opportunities to take actions of improvement. Second, the financial objective of character T-shirts dealing with environmental issue of sustainability involves brand distribution network support and revitalization of promotion such as shopping basket of love and eco-friendly store matching program for eco-friendly campaign. As for the non-financial aspect, it can help raise consumers' awareness of cause related activities such as crowd funding and fundraising and prepare opportunities of direct participation. Third, the financial objective of character T-shirts dealing with natural disaster relief activities on the global level involves brand recognition level increase and enhancement of positive association of companies through emergency relief and articles support as a result of drastic increases in casualties from nature disasters. As for the non-financial aspect, it can induce people's participation in relief activities and lead to the establishment of crisis response procedures. The information on the development of pop-art character T-shirts proposed in this study is expected to be used as basic information on cause marketing of fashion companies in the future, while providing inspiration to related fashion design.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.25-43
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• 2017

This paper addresses the central issue of whether it is effective for a firm to discourage the purchase of its own product in order to support a social cause. The objectives of this study were: a) to examine whether a cause-related self-prevention ad would stimulate more positive evaluations compared to promotional ad, particularly when the product category is more negatively socially accepted; and 2) to determine if a negative attitude toward the product could induce a boomerang effect of a selfprevention ad. Results from three experiments revealed that socially responsible prevention campaigns against firm's own product may be more effective for the product category negatively associated with social concerns or welfare. If products are more limited in the social context, communications of product prevention are beneficial to improve the public image of the brand. However, the self-hurting approach may be inappropriate for potential customers who currently possess a strong negative attitude toward the product.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.35-44
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the effect of choice of cause on the purchase intention by dividing it into the situation selected by the consumer and the company. This study also examines the moderating effect of cause options diversity and company-cause fit on the relationship between choice of cause and purchase intention. This will provide the theoretical information necessary to gain an in-depth understanding of the consumer's intention to purchase the cause-related marketing campaign, and in practice, it is expected that companies will be able to obtain useful information for effective planning and execution of the cause-related marketing campaign. Research design, date, and methodology - This study's survey was carried out on the college students of university located in Shandong, China. It was from November 4-11, 2018, and a total of 440 questionnaires were distributed, with 424 collected. Of them, effective questionnaires used in the final study were a total of 400 except 24 that couldn't be used. In this study, empirical analysis was done with frequency analysis, reliability analysis, analysis of variance and simple effect analysis by using Statistics Package SPSS 20.0. Results - The results are reported below: first of all, in the cause-related campaign consumers are more willing to buy the products when they are allowed to choice the focal cause of charity than when the company selects the cause of charity. Furthermore, the positive effect of allowing consumers to choice the cause of charity (vs. company choice) on purchase intentions is greater for high cause diversity to select. Finally, the positive effect of allowing consumers to choice the cause of charity (vs. company choice) on purchase intentions is greater when perceived fit between the company and the cause charity is low. Conclusions - This study extends the scope of the consumer perspective from consumer purchase intention research to the choice of cause in the cause-related marketing. When consumers select the cause, it would be better to provide the cause charity in diversifying selection and provide options for low fit between company and cause charity.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.121-131
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• 2011

Green Marketing, a response to the serious environment problems of the 21st century, is an important point for trends in both art and fashion. It is a strategy for reminding consumers of the threatening environment problems and to recognize that everyone must take responsibility for these problems. Green marketing is a concept that is the point at issue and social reform movement. The purpose of this study was to find examples of Green Marketing in fashion and classify them into four groups. The results of this study were as follows. First, the terms related to green marketing as related to fashion can be categorized into four areas: 1. Eco-friendly product marketing: product merchandising that usually uses organic materials and green manufacturing processes. 2. Green-communication marketing: PR strategies that use green slogans through deep impression advertising or special promotional events relating reducing, reusing and recycling, etc., with the brand's name. 3. Green environmental-marketing: marketing strategies that is an enlightenment campaign for environmental preservation and sustainable fashion design such as reusing, recycling, and reducing. 4. Cause-related marketing: marketing plans that return profits to society and that take an active part in the causes of the community. It was expected that these types of green marketing strategies would yield positive effects in enhancing brand value and consumer confidence as well as increasing profits.