A Study On The Impact Of Matching Consumer Self-construal And Cause-related Marketing Message Framing On Consumer Response

With the prevalence of the global concept of sustainability,consumers are increasingly concerned about public welfare and have higher demand for companies to engage in corporate social responsibility.Against this backdrop,cause-related marketing,,which is a win-win situation for companies,society and consumers,is becoming increasingly popular among companies.However,not all cause-related marketing campaigns are successful,as they are influenced by a number of factors,the most fundamental of which is the positive responses of consumers.Because consumers have different personal motivations,they process cause-related marketing messages in different ways,thus influencing their own attitudes and behaviours.Therefore,an accurate understanding of the relationship between consumer self-construal and cause-related marketing advertising messages will contribute to the success of cause-related marketing.Throughout the research that has been conducted,most of the research has focused on selfconstrual or message framing in cause-related marketing,and there are many differences in the findings.In this thesis,we explore the relationship between consumers’ personal motivations and the framing of cause-related marketing messages by combining consumer self-construal and cause-related marketing messages to provide a new perspective on consumer engagement in cause-related marketing.This thesis takes the combination of consumer self-construal(dependent selfconstrual and independent self-construal)and cause-related marketing message framing(positive and negative messages)as the main line of inquiry,and conducts an in-depth study of consumers ’ attitudes towards cause-related marketing companies,their willingness to buy and their willingness to spread word-of-mouth,focusing on the following questions: First,in cause-related marketing,consumers face different advertising message frames,and whether dependent self-construal and independent self-construal produce different judgments.Do different types of self-construal produce different judgments? Is there a matching effect between self-construal and cause-related marketing message framing? Secondly,the independent self-construal able to produce altruistic behaviour from the perspective of self-interest,while the dependent self-construal is able to produce purely altruistic behaviour in relation to others? Do both independent and dependent self-construals generate higher levels of empathy when motivated by different cause-based marketing messages? Does higher consumer empathy lead to a more positive response to cause-related marketing? Thirdly,does moral identity play a moderating role in the mechanism under which self-construal matches with the marketing message framework to influence consumer response? Does moral identity also have an impact in the mechanism by which matching self-construal with the information framework of cause-related marketing influences consumer empathy?In respond to the above questions,this thesis based on the literature research review and sorting out the previous research results in the field,constructs a model of consumer self-construal and cause-related marketing message framings matching on consumer response based on the theoretical foundations of SOR theory,attribution theory,social identity theory and regulatory fit theory,follows the experimental research paradigm to design and conduct pre-experiments and four formal experiments,using SPSS26.0 and AMOS26.0 statistical analysis software were used to test the research hypotheses and the main findings were as follows: First,there is a matching effect between the self-construal and cause-related marketing message framings.Specifically,independent self-construal and positive message framings have a stronger effect on consumer response than negative message framings.Dependent individual self-construals and negative message framings have a stronger effect on consumer response than positive message framings for causerelated marketing.Secondly,the match between consumer self-construal and cause-related marketing message framing significantly influences consumer empathy,with higher consumer empathy resulting in stronger attitudes towards the company,willingness to buy the product and willingness to spread word-of-mouth about the company.Thirdly,moral identity plays a significant moderating role in the matching of self-construal and causerelated marketing message framings to influence consumer response.In particular,the higher the degree of internalisation of moral identity and representation of moral identity,the stronger the effect of matching self-construal and cause-related marketing message framing on consumer response.At the same time,moral identity plays a significant moderating role in the effect of matching self-construal and marketing messages on empathy.Specifically,the higher the internalisation of moral identity and the representation of moral identity,the stronger the effect of matching the self-construal and the marketing message framing on empathy.The main contributions of this thesis are: firstly,this thesis verifies the existence of a matching effect between consumer self-construal and message framing from two perspectives: trait self-construal and contextual self-construal,showing that neither selfconstrual nor cause-related marketing information alone can have a direct effect on consumer response,effectively explaining the reasons for the different findings of previous research on the effect of cause-related marketing message framing,and providing an opportunity for this thesis effectively explains the reasons for the different conclusions of scholars on the influence of the cause-related marketing message framing,and opens up new perspectives for future cause-related marketing research.Secondly,based on SOR theory,attribution theory,social identity theory and moderated matching theory,this thesis focuses on consumers’ self-constructed traits and constructs a mechanism model of “selfconstructed and message framing matching-empathy-consumer response”,which introduces consumers’ personal traits and emotions into the process of cause-related marketing.This thesis enriches the research findings on empathy and pro-social behaviour,and also provides a new perspective for the study of cause-related marketing.Thirdly,on the basis of social identity theory,this thesis incorporates moral identity into the research framework and sorts out the different under which moral identity internalisation and moral identity representationalisation plays a moderating role.The implications of this thesis for corporate marketing management are: firstly,when companies carry out cause-related marketing,they should place cause-related marketing advertisements according to different groups of people.Only if consumers’ encounter more preferred marketing messages,the more positively consumers will respond to the company’s cause-related marketing activities.Secondly,companies can link social responsibility,charitable activities and social emotions to highlight the plight of recipients and the significance of public welfare,enhance consumer empathy and promote consumer response.Thirdly,companies should focus on the creation of a marketing atmosphere by displaying caring and friendly pictures and videos in order to initiate consumers’ moral identity.They should actively promote consumers’ behaviour in cause-related marketing,fully reflecting the personal image and reputation of the participants and enhancing the enhancement of consumers’ social and corporate identity.