Cause-related marketing and values in Australia

An investigation is conducted into attitudes towards cause-related marketing (CRM) among Australian consumers, with attention to the underlying differences in consumer values. It is found that those who place greater importance on values such as warm relationships, self-fulfilment and security are likely to have more positive attitudes towards CRM. In addition, females appear to have somewhat more positive attitudes towards cause-related marketing than males. Interestingly, the degree to which consumers are susceptible to interpersonal influence is not related to attitudes towards CRM. The implications are that cause-related marketing efforts are therefore best directed at females and those who value relationships, self-fulfilment and security. Efforts to support CRM through social influences (ie via compliance and conformity) would appear to be unlikely to succeed. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications     

Individualism/collectivism,charitable giving,and cause‐related marketing: a comparison of Chinese and Americans

• With the global expansion of cause‐related marketing (CRM), advertisers need to know whether and how cultural and societal differences impact attitude toward CRM across markets. To add to that knowledge, the present study identifies two consumer traits, that is, individualism/collectivism and perception of individual charitable giving as a social norm, and investigates and compares their influence on attitude toward CRM. By conducting surveys with Chinese and American samples, the present study found that gender, horizontal collectivism (HC), and perception of individual charitable giving as a social norm were significantly associated with attitude toward CRM in the American sample, whereas horizontal individualism, HC, and vertical collectivism were significant predictors of attitude toward CRM in the Chinese sample. Theoretically, these findings suggest that associations between one cultural dimension and the attitude toward CRM are independent to relationships involving other dimensions. And the particular circumstance of a local market may determine which consumer traits will actually have a significant association with attitude toward CRM. Practically, the findings suggest that advertisers may want to choose social causes that have national impact in China because there is a tendency of achieving egoistic enhancement through individual charitable giving whereas social causes that are relevant to female consumers are better strategic choices in the USA.

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of branding on adolescent smoking behaviour: exploring the mediating role of image and attitudes

• This study investigates the continuing effects of tobacco marketing communications in a post advertising era, focusing on the constructs of brand awareness, brand image, attitude formation and intention to smoke by adolescents.
• A conceptual model is presented, based on 926 respondents from a UK wide study, to assess brand‐related interrelationships and influences of peers on adolescents' attitudes toward smoking and intention to smoke.
• Results show the strong influence of branding on both attitude and intention, and have implications for government anti‐smoking policies specifically in regard to generic packaging and point of sale displays.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cause‐related marketing campaigns with luxury firms: An experimental study of campaign characteristics,attitudes, and donations

• Cause‐related marketing (CRM) partnerships between luxury firms and charitable organizations have grown in popularity, yet no study has examined such luxury CRM campaigns thus far. Using a fictitious campaign by the Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin and the Plan International Germany charity, the authors conducted an experimental CRM study among 281 actual luxury consumers. Realizing CRM campaigns in the luxury segment can be promising for luxury firms and charities. In particular, a CRM campaign works best when the donation magnitude is high (25% vs. 1%) and the price of the luxury service offering is moderate (€180 vs. €450). Furthermore, luxury campaigns enhance the attitudes of luxury customers toward charitable organizations, especially if they are unknown brands. Yet this study also offers a warning that luxury campaigns can be risky if consumers who have previously supported the charitable organization perceive the campaign as too high profile. Ultimately, this study reveals that CRM luxury campaigns play a major role for fundraising success.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of cause marketing associations on product and cause brand value

• The purpose of the study presented in this paper is to add to our understanding of the added value, both monetary and non‐monetary, to a brand when supporting a cause in a cause marketing ad. The findings show that consumers do not perceive the brand to be worth more if it was shown to be supporting a cause. The study also failed to show a significant improvement in consumer brand attitudes for brands featured in cause marketing ads. However, there was an attitude improvement for the cause. Product type and consumer dispositional variables were also examined.
• In summary, this study calls into question the value brands derive from being paired with a cause. This study discusses productive areas of future research and managerial implications.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Increased word‐of‐mouth via strategic cause‐related marketing

• This research examines word‐of‐mouth (WOM) promotions as an additional consequence of a successful cause‐related marketing (CRM) partnership. Firms properly aligned in CRM partnerships should increase positive feelings that can translate into positive WOM from the public. WOM efforts should be considered in marketing campaigns to develop successful long‐term CRM strategies. Additionally, carefully planned CRM campaigns with positive WOM give firms a competitive advantage without the backlash of consumer skepticism often reported when firms attempt to manipulate WOM campaigns. This study is grounded in associative learning theory which provides support for the strengthened associative links between firm and charity when the relationship is properly aligned. This empirical study suggests that strategically aligned CRM relationships can improve positive WOM recommendations. Results of ANOVA and factor analysis indicate that consumers are more receptive to CRM partnerships that consist of compatibility between firm and charity that persist over time. Results suggest that consumers are more likely to recommend the more properly aligned partnerships to others.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Libraries in transition to a marketing orientation: are librarians' attitudes a barrier?

• This study examines librarians' attitudes toward the marketing of library services, as libraries continue their transition to a marketing orientation. Although prior studies had observed misunderstandings and hostility to marketing among librarians, most previous discussions of this topic were either speculative or based on extremely small samples. In order to provide more evidence in this matter, a large‐scale survey of members of the New Jersey Library Association (NJLA) was conducted. A ‘Pro Marketing’ scale was introduced and used to segment participants with respect to their attitudes. The findings indicate that most respondents expressed relatively positive attitudes toward marketing, but that more positive attitudes were expressed by public librarians than school or college/university librarians, and by administrators as opposed to reference and technical services librarians. Illustrative respondent comments and implications for library management are included.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the interactive effects of brand use and gender on cause‐related marketing over time

Research has shown that men and women respond differently to cause‐related marketing (CRM) appeals with fictitious brands; however, few studies examine how CRM works for existing brands or measure long‐term effects. To fill these gaps, we explore the influence of sponsor brand use and gender on responses to a CRM campaign at three points in time (premessage, postmessage exposure, and 2‐week delay). We are the first study to identify the moderating effect of brand use on gendered responses to CRM messages. Nonbrand users increased their purchase intentions after CRM message exposure; this was especially true for men. Overall, our findings reinforce past research showing that CRM can positively influence short‐term purchase intentions. We reveal new insights that show CRM can work especially well among nonbrand buyers; however, no significant long‐term influence was found. Our results demonstrate the importance of segmenting the market by demographics and brand use as well as considering the long‐term implications of CRM persuasion.     

Critical social marketing – The impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking: Qualitative findings

• This paper presents findings from exploratory qualitative research as part of a critical social marketing study examining the impact of alcohol marketing communications on youth drinking. The findings from stakeholder interviews (regulators and marketers) suggest that some alcohol marketing might target young people, and that marketers are cognisant of growing concern at alcohol issues, including control of alcohol marketing. Focus groups with young people (aged 13–15 years) revealed a sophisticated level of awareness of, and involvement in, alcohol marketing across several channels. It was found that some marketing activities featured content that could appeal to young people and appeared to influence their, well‐developed, brand attitudes. The research demonstrates the utility of taking a critical social marketing approach when examining the impact of alcohol marketing. The implications of these findings for research, regulation and policy around alcohol marketing are also examined. The contribution that studies such as this make to the debate around marketing principles and practice, and to social marketing, is also discussed.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conditional altruism: Effects of HRM practices on the willingness of host‐country nationals to help expatriates

The assistance of host‐country nationals (HCNs) both within the workplace and in the external environment plays a significant role in expatriate adjustment and work performance on international assignments. Extant research exploring antecedents of HCNs' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates focuses on personal and intrapersonal factors but overlooks organizational contextual effects. In this study, we propose and test a model that HCNs' willingness to help expatriates is influenced by HRM practices in international subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Results of analyzing data collected from Chinese subsidiaries of South Korean MNEs showed that high‐commitment HRM practices directly and indirectly influence HCNs' willingness to help expatriates through the mediation of perceived organizational support (POS). Socially responsible HRM indirectly influences the criterion variable through the mediation of organizational identification. Moreover, POS and organizational identification sequentially mediate the effect of high‐commitment HRM on HCNs' willingness to help expatriates. These findings shed some light on organizational antecedents that go beyond personal and intrapersonal factors of HCN attitudes and behavior toward expatriates.     

Social marketing with challenging target groups: smoking cessation in prisons in England and Wales

• Smoking levels among prisoners are much higher than amongst the UK population as a whole. Our research focuses on the development and implementation of a pilot smoking cessation project:
  • Using a social marketing process combined with the Health Behaviour Model, 159 participants, drawn from four prisons, undertook a smoking cessation programme.
  • Data was collected using a case study approach, with a variety of research methods: primarily depth individual and mini‐group qualitative interviews, but also document analysis and observation.
  • The findings draw on prisoners' perspectives in the context of the marketing mix in elements of the strategy design, implementation and evaluation.
  • The discussion identifies the need to maintain a consumer perspective, feeding into the marketing mix, and to identify and promote aspects of mutually beneficial exchange over and above basic health and monetary costs.
• The positive outcomes and insights gained show that using a social marketing strategy, as part of a smoking cessation programme, has important policy and practice implications. Lessons could be applied to other health issues and in similar settings such as forensic mental health.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhancing occupational health and safety in young workers: the role of social marketing

• Young workers (age 15–24) suffer work‐related injury at a much higher rate than older workers, yet research on the role and effectiveness of social marketing to influence and improve workplace safety is limited.
• A review of the relevant literature reveals that significant gaps exist in terms of effectively using social marketing to reduce young worker injury rates.
• A comprehensive, multi‐faceted social marketing approach is required to address young worker safety.
• Directing more attention toward the practice of social marketing can enhance the effectiveness of campaigns to reduce workplace injuries.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are religious people more caring? Exploring the impact of religiosity on charitable organizations in a developing country

• The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of religiosity on reasons that individuals volunteer. Additionally, this study will investigate the pro‐social attitudes towards helping others and charitable organizations. This study focuses on Indonesia where religion plays an important role in daily life. The data were derived from a convenience sampling at a large private university in Surabaya, Indonesia (N = 258). The results showed that individuals with high intrinsic and extrinsic personal religiosity were more likely to have ‘other‐oriented’ reasons when performing philanthropic activities. Nonetheless, religiosity did not influence attitudes of individuals towards helping others. This study contributes to the debate regarding the effect of religious values on pro‐social attitudes in the context of a developing country. Furthermore, the study provides social implications for researchers, policy makers and practitioners operating in a developing country. This is one of the first few studies exploring the impact of religion on attitude towards charitable organization in Indonesia.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What aspects of the job have most effect on nurses?

The study reported here compared the influences of psychological constructs (job demands and scheduling control) and objective work characteristics (shiftwork, night‐work and hospital department type) on job satisfaction, organisational commitment, burnout and withdrawal intentions. Our hypothesis was that psychological constructs have a higher influence on work‐related attitudes than objective characteristics of work schedules. In addition to the main effects, we proposed an interactive hypothesis: poor attitudes would result from high demands and low control rather than from other combinations of both psychological variables. Using a sample of 153 hospital nurses in Israel, the hypotheses were generally supported. As night‐work, shiftwork and working in intensive care units are unavoidable characteristics of the modern medical environment, these findings are meaningful for improving the personal adjustment of hospital nurses.     

Agent-based modeling of the word-of-mouth effect on promoting brand-name agricultural products

Developing brand agricultural products (BAPs) has become a strategic choice for consumption upgrading and agricultural modernization in China. As a powerful marketing method, word-of-mouth (WOM) is rarely applied to BAPs. Based on the particularity of the agricultural environment and products in China, this paper focuses on the WOM behavior of consumers regarding BAPs. An agent-based simulation model was designed, including attitude and motivation functions. The former determines consumers’ attitudes toward BAPs, whereas the latter determines whether consumers will spread information by WOM. The model was validated, and some parameters were measured through a survey of Beijing consumers. Then, experiments were conducted to simulate the evolution process of consumers’ attitudes and willingness to engage in WOM and the influence of consumer heterogeneity on WOM spreading. Exploratory findings mainly show that (1) only when the strength of WOM marketing reaches a certain degree can it affect consumer attitudes toward BAPs, (2) in the early stage of WOM spreading, the greater the strength of economic stimulation to consumers, the greater the rate of WOM communication, and (3) the higher the education level of the target group of WOM marketing, the higher the efficiency of WOM communication.

     

Branding HIV/AIDS communication: the social marketing campaigns of MTV and Viacom

• Based on an ethnographic study of the production and reception of HIV/AIDS public service campaigns by MTV and Viacom, this paper examines the role of branding in HIV/AIDS education promotion. A main premise of the paper is that audiences for HIV/AIDS social marketing campaigns are now less addressed in terms of the classic HIV/AIDS prevention categories of ‘general public’ and ‘risk groups’ and are increasingly viewed as ‘market segments’ implicated in the campaigns in relation to the techniques of branding. Drawing on examples from research conducted amongst audiences in the North of England, the findings highlight the differing audience understandings of the branded consumer objects and icons of HIV awareness. Using a cultural materialist perspective, concerned with the relationship between the campaigns and social relations, this paper examines the process of corporate-sponsored HIV/AIDS campaigns. The findings underscore how social marketing campaigns are increasingly being related to as branded media objects and icons, closely tied to people's material experience and understandings of the aesthetics framing these branded objects and icons. The paper argues that identification and engagement with the campaigns is most evident amongst participants who shared the consumer values and the marketing discourses used by marketing managers and producers of the public service announcements.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How can domestic households become part of the solution to England's recycling problems?

A waste disposal problem of looming proportions, coupled with a lack of sufficient public engagement in the preferred alternative to disposal, which is recycling, continues to perplex English policy‐makers. Based on both a literature review across a wide range of disciplines and a national survey of consumer attitudes towards their own participation in recycling, this paper finds that past efforts at increasing recycling have been based on an implied model of consumer recycling behaviour that is not supported by what happens in practice. By disentangling thinking about recycling behaviour from academic thinking about green consumerism, the paper considers the waste and recycling problem from a different angle. It suggests that research on the personal values of people who recycle could be utilized in marketing communications that show these values being fulfilled by recycling. Focusing greater marketing attention on people who already claim to recycle, and helping them through better communication and improved practical help, could achieve much higher levels of reclaimed materials. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Values,gender and attitudes towards environmental policy: A study of future managers

This study explores if the value priorities and their impact on future managers' attitudes towards environmental responsibilities vary with gender. While relevant prior studies mostly focus on gender‐based variations of individuals' personal values in developed economies, we concentrate on both personal values and pro‐environmental attitudes in an emerging economy. This study is built on MBA students (a proxy for future managers) in India since India is characterized as a male‐dominated society and a producer of larger number of MBA graduates. Overall, our results show that personal values and attitude towards environmental responsibilities do not vary significantly with gender. Only two values (among the 21 values) and one value type (out of 10 values) get significantly higher ranking from females compared with males. Further, although ‘universalism’ and ‘benevolence’ are found to have a statistically significant impact on respondents' attitude towards environmental responsibility, the latter is invariant to the respondents' gender. Our findings may indicate India's transformation from a male‐dominated society towards a more gender‐balanced society. These findings can be used to operationalize a pro‐environmental recruitment policy and to formulate strategies to improve female participation in MBA cohorts of business schools.     

Integrating Behavioural and Branding Perspectives to Maximize Green Brand Equity: A Holistic Approach

The aim of this study is to expand the existing understanding of green consumers' behaviour by proposing and testing an integrated conceptual model that explores the influence of consumers' personal concerns for the environment and general attitudes towards green products on brand‐related knowledge structures (image and associations) and relationship preferences (trust and brand equity) for green brands. A questionnaire‐based survey method was used to collect data using convenience sampling. One hundred and ninety‐nine usable responses were obtained. A structural equation modelling procedure was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results confirmed that a positive relationship exists between consumer concern for environmental values and general attitudes towards green products. Both these constructs influence consumers' knowledge structure of a green brand (image and associations). Furthermore, a strong relationship exists between consumers' knowledge structure (image and associations) and their relational preference (trust and brand equity) with green brands. These findings are important for business strategy formulation by providing empirical support for the idea that a firm should invest its resources not only to project its environmentally friendly brands but also to build consumers' concern for environmental values and their attitude towards green products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Does knowledge explain trust behaviors and outcomes? The different influences of initial knowledge and experiential knowledge on personal trust interactions

This paper examines the influences of initial knowledge and experiential knowledge on trust behaviors and trust outcomes, respectively, at an interpersonal level. We use an experimental dynamic trust game, and our results show that (1) the initial knowledge that exists a priori between a trustor and a trustee helps to explain the trustor's trust behaviors toward the trustee, and (2) the experiential knowledge gained directly by a trustor during a specific trust interaction with a trustee influences the trust outcome, i.e. the difference between the original expectations of the trustor and the subsequent trust behaviors. Our results contribute to human resource literature by clarifying the specific influences of different types of knowledge on interpersonal trust relationships (e.g. between managers and employees) and by supplementing the traditional notion that trust within a firm develops slowly by showing that personal expectations have an immediate and important influence on trust output.