The Dual Processing of Donation Size in Cause-Related Marketing (CRM): The Moderating Roles of Construal Level and Emoticons

Abstract

Donation size is known to be one of the factors that determines the success of cause-related marketing (CRM), which is the most practical form of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Although various studies have investigated the influence of donation size on CRM, they have not shown clear results. In addition, no research has examined the mechanism of how consumers process donation-size information. In this study, we examined the effect of donation size on consumer responses, focusing on the differences in perceived benefits and perceived monetary sacrifice according to the construal level. Furthermore, we investigated the role of emoticons as a way to increase the intention to participate in CRM by lowering the consumers’ perceptions of monetary sacrifice. Study 1 showed that for consumers with a higher construal level who perceive donation size as benefits, donation size had positive effects on consumer responses, whereas for those with a lower construal level who perceive donation size as monetary sacrifice, it had negative effects on their responses. Study 2 showed that emoticons attenuated the interaction effect of donation size and construal level. Finally, the implications of this study are discussed.

Cause-related marketing in online environment: the role of brand-cause fit, perceived value, and trust

“…As for the intention to participate, the same 7-point Likert scale was used. This was based on the research of Yoo, Kim, & Doh (2018), and the same scale was also used in the research of Grau & Folse (2007). Table 1 summarizes the constructs and items in the survey.…”

“…It is likely that I would contribute to a cause by getting involved in a CrM campaign. (Yoo et al, 2018) Cronbach alpha: 0.952 Other studies: (Grau & Folse, 2007) 4.2. Sample…”

Give Goods or Give Money? The Influence of Cause-Related Marketing Approach on Consumers’ Purchase Intention

“…Outcome variables Effects of CRM on outcomes Varadarajan and Menon (1988) Purchase behavior CRM will positively influence consumers' initial and continuous purchase intention Ross et al (1992) Product evaluation Consumers had better evaluation and higher purchase preference for products with CRM and were willing to convert their current brands into corporate brands with a higher level of social responsibility Sánchez (2000) Advertising effectiveness Charity marketing helped enterprises to establish a good image and brand recognition and had a better advertising effect Chaney and Dolli (2001) Actual purchase behavior Most consumers would show their support for the CRM activities through actual purchase behavior Kalligeros (2005) Emotional connections and purchase behaviors CRM could create emotional connections between consumers and products which could further affect consumers' purchase behaviors Lee Thomas et al (2011) Consumers charitable marketing activities (Human and Terblanche, 2012;Yoo et al, 2018). In this study, we controlled BOGM contributions of the same size as the value of the product or a product of the same category in order to avoid the impact of donation magnitude on consumer's purchase intention.…”

“…Information statement order refers to the prepositive or postposition of different information. In recent years, many CRM researches discussed the impact of the information framework, including the statement of donation magnitude (Folse et al, 2010;Müller et al, 2014;Yoo et al, 2018) and information content (Grau and Folse, 2007;Bester and Jere, 2012). These researches are mainly based on the information frame effect, which refers to that information upon which receivers make different judgments on the described object; in terms of that information, the narrator adopts different expression methods for the same information (Levin and Gaeth, 1988).…”

“…As an originally short-term promotional strategy, CRM has helped companies achieve their goals, and it has evolved into a popular and successful strategy nowadays. However, when an enterprise wants to implement CSR strategies, the decision of the enterprise needs to consider not only which social problems to contribute to and how much to donate (Yoo et al, 2018) but also how to contribute (e.g., cash, products, and employee volunteerism; Hildebrand et al, 2017). At present, there are two ways to realize social responsibility through CRM approach, buy-one give-one or buy-one give-money.…”