Guilt appeals in cause-related marketing: the subversive roles of product type and donation magnitude

Despite the growth of cause-related marketing (CRM), little is known about how consumers process cause-focused messages that contain emotional appeals.

Guilt appeals in cause-related marketing: the subversive roles of product type and donation magnitude

Chun-Tuan Chang

National Sun Yat-sen University

Introduction

After the recent Haiti earthquake, many companies began scrambling to donate money to the relief effort. For example, Sony Online Entertainment chose to donate ten dollars to disaster relief for each PlayStation purchase, while Timberland made a donation of two dollars to the Yéle Haiti Earthquake Fund for every pair of shoes it sold, contributing to the relief and recovery that communities in Haiti urgently need. This type of corporate giving is referred to as cause-related marketing (CRM) (Varagarajan...

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