The Study On Influencing Mechanism Of Cause-Related Marketing On Brand Loyalty In Beverage Corporation

In 1980s, with the thriving of social responsibility movement, Cause-related Marketing, which originated in the United States and quickly swept the world, became an important marketing strategy for corporations. Society has put increasing demand on corporations to shoulder social responsibility and to address social problems. Corporations, on the other hand, have gradually learned to make use of Cause-related Marketing to achieve a win-win situation between corporate itself and the society. At present, the practice of Cause-related Marketing in China is still at the initial stage, especially there is misunderstanding around why and how companies should engage in Cause-related Marketing. Under this background, this dissertation carries out a theoretical and empirical study on how corporate pubic marketing influences its brand loyalty from the perspective of consumers, and ultimately to reveal as a new marketing mode, how significant is Cause-related Marketing to building and maintaining corporate brand loyalty. Literature review has shown that there is a lot of research on Cause-related marketing both at home and abroad. However, there is only a few study focusing on Cause-related Marketing for a specific industry. Based on previous studies, this dissertation discusses the influencing mechanism of Cause-related Marketing on brand loyalty in beverage industry in terms of consumer perceptions on Cause-related Marketing. The research model consists of three parts, namely, the independent variable, dependent variable and the mediator, where brand trust serves as mediator.How Cause-related marketing influences consumer's brand attitude is also a theoretical dilemma. This dissertation selects the well-known beverage company- " NONGFU SPRING" as the object of the study, and employs questionnaire survey to gather information on domestic consumer's perceptions of Cause-related Marketing, brand trust, and brand loyalty. By resorting to SPSS 13.0 and AMOS 7.0 for statistical analysis, the main conclusions can be drawn as follows:(1) Consumer perceptions on Beverage Company's Cause-related Marketing can exert significant impact on consumer brand trust. Among the six factors affecting consumer perceptions on Cause-related Marketing, consumer involvement is the most significant factor influencing brand trust, followed by consumer attitude towards public welfare causes and corporate credibility, whereas, the matching between beverage corporation and public welfare causes does not show any significant effect on brand trust.(2) Consumer brand trust exerts significant influence on consumer brand loyalty. Brand trust includes two dimensions:brand intentionality and brand credibility. Brand intentionality and brand credibility exert significant impact on brand loyalty, among which brand intentionality is a more significant factor.(3) On the one hand, beverage company's Cause-related Marketing directly influences brand loyalty; on the other hand, it influences brand loyalty through mediation of brand trust. Among these two different influencing patterns, the fact that direct influence is weak reveals that Cause-related Marketing influences brand loyalty through the mediation of brand trust. The influence of brand trust on brand loyalty not only comes from brand trust itself, but also consumer perceptions on Cause-related Marketing.(4) Individual variables exert significant impact on certain variables in the model. Females hold more positive attitude towards Cause-related Marketing than males; while males are more involved in brand than females. Age is a factor that influences Cause-related Marketing perceptions and consumer's loyalty, while in brand trust, cognitive and behavioral loyalties, age is not a significant influencing factor. Educational background is a significant factor influencing Cause-related Marketing perception and brand trust, while it is not significant in brand loyalty. Profession does riot show significance in consumer's Cause-related Marketing perception, brand trust, and brand loyalty.In conclusion, this dissertation analyzes and discusses the research findings, and then put forward specific suggestions on how to implement Cause-related Marketing in China's beverage industry.