Valuing the cause marketing relationship

California Management Review

Volumn 47, Issue 1, 2004, Pages

  Gourville, John T ^a   Kasturi Rangan, V ^a  

^a HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL   (United States)

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EID: 10844256773     PISSN: 00081256     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/41166286     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (26)

1. By "for-profit firm," we refer either to a corporation that is engaged in a single business or to a specific business unit of a multi-unit corporation. Similarly, when we refer to strategy, we are referring to that firm's "business" or "competitive" strategy.
2. Estimate based on: "Cause-Related Partners; Cause Marketing Snapshot," Promo (February 1999); "Reinventing Cause Marketing," Brandweek, October 27, 1997.
3. Estimate based on: "Cause-Related Partners; Cause Marketing Snapshot," Promo (February 1999); "Reinventing Cause Marketing," Brandweek, October 27, 1997.
4. For notable exceptions, however, see Alan R. Andreasen, "Profits for Nonprofits: Find a Corporate Partner," Harvard Business Review, 74/6 (November/December 1996): 47-59; Minette E. Drumwright, Peggy H. Cunningham, and Ida E. Berger, "Social Alliances: Company/Nonprofit Collaboration," Marketing Science Institute, Report 00-101, 2000.
5. For notable exceptions, however, see Alan R. Andreasen, "Profits for Nonprofits: Find a Corporate Partner," Harvard Business Review, 74/6 (November/December 1996): 47-59; Minette E. Drumwright, Peggy H. Cunningham, and Ida E. Berger, "Social Alliances: Company/Nonprofit Collaboration," Marketing Science Institute, Report 00-101, 2000.
6. We would note, however, that American Express ran a smaller, less-cited cause marketing campaign in 1982, where they donated 5¢ to the San Francisco Arts Festival every time an area customer used their American Express charge card and $2 for every new card issued. This three-month campaign contributed over $100,000 to the Festival by American Express.
7. "Brand aid: Cause Effective," Brandweek, February 22, 1999.
8. Avon Company Website, «www.avoncompany.com/women/avoncrusade», August 6, 2003
9. See Michael J. Barone, Anthony D. Miyazaki, Kimberly A. Taylor, "The Influence of Cause-Related Marketing on Consumer Choice: Does One Good Turn Deserve Another?" Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28/2 (2000): 248-262.
10. I b i d.
11. See Michal Strahilevitz and John G. Myers, "Donations to Charity as Purchase Incentives: How Well They Work May Depend on What You Are Trying to Sell," Journal of Consumer Research, 24/4 (March 1998): 434-446.
12. See Michal Strahilevitz, "The Effects of Product Type and Donation Magnitude on Willingness to Pay More for a Charity-Linked Brand," Journal of Consumer Psychology, 8/3 (1999): 215-241.
13. P. Rajan Varadarajan and Anil Menon, "Cause-Related Marketing: A Coalignment of Marketing Strategy and Corporate Philanthropy," Journal of Marketing, 52/3 (June 1988): 58-74.
14. See, for example, Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal, Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships, (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2000); Sue Adkins, Cause Related Marketing: Who Cares Wins, (Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999); Richard Steckel, Robin Simons, Jeffrey Simons, and Norman Tanen, Making Money while Making a Difference: How to Profit with a Nonprofit Partner (Homewood, IL: High Tide Press, 1999).
15. See, for example, Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal, Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships, (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2000); Sue Adkins, Cause Related Marketing: Who Cares Wins, (Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999); Richard Steckel, Robin Simons, Jeffrey Simons, and Norman Tanen, Making Money while Making a Difference: How to Profit with a Nonprofit Partner (Homewood, IL: High Tide Press, 1999).
16. See, for example, Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal, Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships, (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2000); Sue Adkins, Cause Related Marketing: Who Cares Wins, (Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999); Richard Steckel, Robin Simons, Jeffrey Simons, and Norman Tanen, Making Money while Making a Difference: How to Profit with a Nonprofit Partner (Homewood, IL: High Tide Press, 1999).
17. We use the terms "first-order" versus "second-order" to signify a more immediate, more transactional set of benefits versus a longer-term, more-relational set of benefits.
18. See Daniel B. Turban and Daniel W. Greening, "Corporate Social Performance and Organizational Attractiveness to Prospective Employees," Academy of Management Journal, 40/3 (1996): 658-672.
19. See Samuel B. Graves and Sandra A. Waddock, "Institutional Owners and Corporate Social Performance," Academy of Management Journal, 37/4 (1994): 1034-1046.
20. See Tom J. Brown and Peter A. Dacin, "The Company and the Product: Corporate Associations and Consumer Product Responses," Journal of Marketing, 61/1 (1997): 68-84.
21. This is not to say that for-profit firms are immune to such relationships, as found out by firms that had aligned themselves with The Boy Scouts of America and Augusta National Golf Course in recent years.
22. "Pediatric Book on Breast-Feeding Stirs Controversy with its Cover," The New York Times, September 18, 2002, p. C1.
23. Cone, Inc., and Roper Starch Worldwide, Inc., "1999 Cone Roper Cause-Related Trend Report: The Evolution of Cause Branding," 1999.
24. The $200 million per year "Good Works" expenditure is noted on Wal-Mart's web site. The inference is ours.
25. We should note that while these are estimates may be tough to justify initially, firms should become better at anticipating the effects of any cause marketing campaign with experience. In the same way that firms routinely attempt to predict (and, later, monitor) the impact of cause marketing actions on sales, so they should routinely attempt to predict (and monitor) the impact of cause marketing actions on employees, investors, and the public.
26. Conversations with Jeanne Rizzo, Executive Director, The Breast Cancer Fund.