The moderating role of social themes in cause-related marketing advertisements

Cause-related Marketing (CrM) has become a necessity for organizations as a strategy not only to improve sales but also to give back to the society. Past studies have proven that CrM advertisements play an important role in driving the intentions of the consumers. This study analyses different CrM advertisements that are based on different social themes to analyze significant differences in variables like consumer attitude towards the cause, attitude towards the brand, cause brand fit and the purchase intention between different advertisements. Data was collected from 544 Indian consumers through an online survey. ANOVA analysis was used to test differences between mean responses, and PLS-SEM was used to test the relationships. Attitude towards CrM advertisement was found to exert significant influence on the purchase intention of consumers. Results indicate significant differences in the attitudes and intentions among people, which show that companies must be careful in choosing appropriate CrM advertisements to generate maximum revenue. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.