Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the relative efficacy of cause-related marketing (CRM) product package labeling versus featured advertising efficacy on market performance. One natural setting using scanner data from a grocery store chain and an open-ended survey were conducted to evaluate the financial performance of featured advertising and product labeling in terms of sustainability of cause-related marketing products. Our findings suggest that cause-related marketing product package labeling without featured advertising appears to provide a competitive advantage resulting in superior financial performance. Also, featured advertising without product package labeling boosts products sales. However, when featured advertising is applied to cause-related marketing product package labeling, the effect of such labeling is diminished. Based on our findings, we suggest that final and intermediate sellers of cause-related marketing products should deliver a persuasive message about the sustainability of cause-related marketing products in the context of a conspicuous environment (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). Although featured advertisements and product package labels are two of the most widely-used tools to promote cause-related marketing products, the cause-related marketing literature has largely neglected a meaningful comparison between the two. This paper seeks to fill the gap in the literature.

Department(s)

Marketing

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093011

Rights Information

© 2018 The authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

Cause-related marketing, Featured advertisements, Package labels, Retailing, Social identity theory, Theory of reasoned action

Publication Date

8-24-2018

Journal Title

Sustainability (Switzerland)

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