Research On The Mechanism Underlying The Effect Of Consumer Perception Of Cause-related Marketing On Loyalty Intention

With consumers concerning more on social causes,many companies choose to use cause-related marketing(CRM).Although campaigns are reported to yield great benefit for sponsoring companies and most consumers see them favorably in general,it is also revealed that CRM might backfire.This paper aims to examine the influence of consumer perception to cause-related marketing on consumers' loyalty intention and the mechanism underlying it.We proposed four research questions:(1)the dimensions of consumer perception of cause-related marketing;(2)the CRM stimulus that influence consumer perception;(3)the mechanism underlying the influence of consumer perception on consumers' loyalty intention;(4)the influence of psychographics in profiling cause-related marketing advocates.Most researchers view consumer perception of intention or motive of corporations practicing CRM as the mechanism to consumers' response to CRM.This paper uses "brands as intentional agents framework" to map consumers' perception of cause-related marketing(Kervyn,2012),which involves the intention mentioned mainly in the prior research,and the other two dimensions:ability and integrity.Consumer perceptions of ability and integrity are quite new to the existing research on CRM.Based on the framework,what consumers concern is not just its intention(attributions of the participation of cause-related marketing),but also the ability to achieve the intention and integrity of a company.This paper established three dimension of consumer perception:competence,other-centered motive,and integrity.In addressing the second research question,this paper used in-depth interview to extract the CRM stimulus that influence the consumer perception,including commitment,consistency,timing and the fit between the company and the social cause.Consumers' attachment was used to explain the mechanism underlying the influence of consumer perceptions of CRM on the loyalty intention.Following the literature review on CRM,stereotype content model,brands as intentional agents framework,attachment theory etc,this paper conducted in-depth interview with 30 participants to examine the CRM stimulus that influence consumer perception,and confirm the three dimensions of consumer perception and other concepts mentioned before.This paper then established the research framework that incorporates consumers' attachment into the influence of consumer perception on consumers' loyalty as the mechanism,and proposed 25 hypotheses.We designed and conducted a survey,involving 625 participants to collect data,which was then used to be analyzed employing SPSS and AMOS.The results are as follows:The commitment,consistency,timing and fit of a CRM activity positively influenced consumer perception of CRM,including the competence,other-centered motive,and integrity of companies practicing CRM.Companies' commitment to CRM involves not only the money pouring in the social cause,but the time,efforts put on the promotion and practice of CRM.Consumers are more likely to perceive companies that commit more to CRM to have strong ability,good intention and high integrity.Likewise,if company's engagement in CRM activity were proved to be consistent,which means participating in social causes in several consecutive years,consumers' perception of companies are to be high in competence,other-centered motive and integrity.Timing,which is the appropriate time when companies chose to take part in CRM,was also proved to be the factors that affect consumers' perception of companies.Consumers also considered fits as another factor that influence consumers' perception of company's involvement of CRM.Findings also suggest that there is a positive relationship between consumer perception(competence,other-centered motives,integrity)and consumer loyalty intention.What challenges prior research on CRM is that among the three dimension of CRM,perception of competence was proved to be the major influence on consumers' loyalty intention.This can be explained by persuasion knowledge model,which states that consumers are likely to use CRM cues to attribute the intention of corporations when they encounter a new marketing tool.But as consumers become savvy,they choose to adopt different strategies in order to rationalize their purchase decision.Consumers have already grasped the insight and the nature of CRM,which incorporates other-motives with self-motives,and they might use competence as a new strategy.Consumer attachment was proved to play a mediated role in the effect,which suggested that companies can use CRM as a way to establish close bonds with consumers.Attachment avoidance plays a moderated role in effect between other-centered motive and consumer loyalty,but no moderated role in the effect between perceived ability,perceived integrity and consumer loyalty intention.The study showed that self-improvement played a moderated role in effect between consumer perception of CRM and loyalty intention.This finding enriches our understanding of the effect of consumer perception of CRM on their loyalty intention in China's context,incorporating consumer attachment as the underlying mechanism.It also challenges the prior research of studying intention as the mechanism of consumers' participation.The finding has great implications for practitioners and future research.