Consumer persuasion through cause-related advertising

Despite the growth of cause-related marketing, little is known about how consumers process advertisements that contain cause-claims. Guided by information processing models, two experiments were conducted to trace the process by which attitudes toward causes influence brand attitudes and purchase intentions. The results indicate that the inclusion of a cause claim in brand advertisements has a very powerful influence on brand attitudes and purchase intentions across differing levels of readers' initial involvement. Mediational analyses show that causes exert this influence through their effects on involvement and perceptions of brand argument quality.