Matching cause-related marketing campaign to culture

Abstract

The goal of this study was to identify links between cultures (high- vs. low-context culture) and the effectiveness of a cause-related marketing (CRM) claim. First, the effect of culture on types of appeals’ (informational vs. emotional vs. combination of informational and emotional) effectiveness was investigated by conducting a multivariate analysis of variance. Employing a path model, the study examined the mediating effect of perceived credibility on the influence of the cultural congruence within attitude toward CRM. The results indicated that culture influenced the effectiveness (CRM attitude, credibility perception, and purchase intention) of type of CRM appeal. The main contribution of this study lies in its analysis of the validity of the interactive affect– cognition relationship effects on CRM message effectiveness across cultures. This study hopes to provide insight into whether differences in cultural values result in perceptual differences, thus necessitating the use of different CRM strategies in different cultures.