Abstract

Over the last decade, cause-related marketing (CRM) has become a popular marketing strategy for companies. Academic research suggests outcomes of CRM campaigns are generally positive for companies as well as for causes. For companies, CRM has been noted to increase sales and enhance companies’ image. As for causes, they received greater funding and publicity. Cause-proximity which is one of the important elements of CRM’s structure has been suggested to significantly influence consumers’ response towards CRM. However, the impacts of cause-proximity on consumers’ response are inconsistent. In this light, this paper investigates (1) the effect of cause-proximity on consumers’ response to CRM (2) the moderating role of gender on the relationship between cause-proximity and consumers’ response to CRM. The results indicate that the effect of cause-proximity is insignificant while gender does influence consumers’ response to CRM. Based on these results, implications for CRM campaign managers and research limitations are highlighted.

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