Is cash always king? Bundling product-cause fit and product type in cause-related marketing

In traditional cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns, companies support a cause by donating a portion of the proceeds from product sales (i.e., monetary giving). Recently, some companies have used the funds to buy something or just donate their own products for the beneficiaries (i.e., nonmonetary giving). We compare these two giving styles along with two moderators: product-cause fit and product type. Three experiments with various sampling methods (mall intercept data and online pool) and donation information (percentage of sales price, the amount of the product price, or one-for-one campaign) are conducted to enhance the robustness of the results. Study 1 shows that when the product and the cause fit well together, the nonmonetary giving strategy evokes a more positive consumer attitude and a stronger purchase intention than does the monetary giving strategy. When the product-cause fit is low, the opposite holds true. Studies 2 and 3 consider product type and product-cause fit simultaneously. When the product-cause fit is high, nonmonetary giving is more effective than monetary giving, regardless of the product type. On the other hand, when the product-cause fit is low, nonmonetary giving is more effective in promoting utilitarian products, but monetary giving is more effective in promoting hedonic products. In Study 3, consumer attributions regarding the company's motives for making the donation (i.e., inferred motives) is used to explain the underlying mechanism.