Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150

Conceptual Analysis of Cause in an Era of Unique Marketing Practices

Ashwini Manasa A. Research Scholar Department Of Studies & Research In Commerce Tumkur University, Tumkur-572 103 Mob no-9739626612; [email protected]

Dr.Suresh B K Assistant Professor of Commerce University College Of Arts Tumkur University, Tumkur-572 103 Mob No- 9845142321 Abstract

Many sales oriented companies have transformed themselves into a customer driven organization in last few decades. With a pressure to meet the demand of global competition, an effective utilization of strategies that can produce quality goods and services while cutting costs has become essential. The new marketing era doesn't only mean the death of traditional form of and shift to alone, but larger transformations of alternative methods to reach the consumers. Cause Marketing is all about being highly responsive to the needs of customers in an unique way by additionally being responsible to the society via customers. The growing concerns over social and environmental issues in public have given the way for corporations an idea to associate their products or services to popular causes of the region in which they operate. Demonstrating a company’s social commitment through partnership with a charity organization for raising money through customers for a cause had been and also is a trending strategy of marketing. This study attempts to conceptualize Cause Marketing which has stood unique from various other strategies of marketing. The study also throws a light on few cause marketing campaigns that created a huge impact and the application of cause marketing in marketing arena and its perspective which makes it different from other corporate social responsible activities.

Keywords: Cause Related Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility; Social Cause.

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1. INTRODUCTION

In present day scenario though hard to believe when compared to economics, production and operations, accounting and other business areas, marketing is relatively young discipline having emerged in the early 1900’s. Prior to this time most issues that are now commonly associated with marketing were either assumed to fall within basic concepts of economics like price setting viewed as a simple supply and demand issue, advertising or in most cases simply not explored like customer purchase behavior, importance of partners, loyalty etc. The development of marketing was in large part motivated by the need to improve in greater detail relationships and behaviors that existed between sellers and buyers. In particular, the study of marketing led sellers to recognize that adopting certain strategies and tactics could significantly benefit the customers in particular and society at large.

At the organizational level, marketing is a vital business function that is necessary in nearly all industries whether the organization operates as for - profit or as a not – for - profit. For a for–profit organization, marketing is responsible for most tasks that brings revenue to an organization. For the non-profit organization, marketing is responsible for attracting customers needed to support the non-profit organization’s mission, such as raising donations or supporting a cause. For both types of organizations it is unlikely that they can survive without a strong marketing effort. Many trends have emerged in the field of marketing. One such trend is Cause marketing or cause related marketing which means the company does marketing in a way that they will contribute to a cause aout of the price paid by the customers to their products or services.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The study attempts to review few important works of various scholars related to cause marketing as under:

Rizwan Shabir, Et al., (2017) in their article explored the role of market communication, product price and customer attitude in designing effective Cause Related Marketing strategies . With a collection of quantitative data from 210 product customers of some selected organisations that practices Cause Marketing , the researchers founded that both product price and market communications play a major role in influencing the consumer buying behaviour . In addition the study also founded out that consumers are more concerned about supporting local or national social

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welfare societies other than international NGOs. On overall summary of the research they concluded that Cause Related is a most powerful tool for increasing the long term revenue and good will to the organization .

Thamaraiselvan Natarajan, Et al., (2016) reviewed the various research papers to give an insight to the researchers into the various factors that influence on the success of Cause Marketing. The researchers stated that careful evaluation of the non-profit organizations is necessary considering both commercial feasibility and philanthropic policies to increase its sales revenue and image. Further they also stated that causes must be locally appealing to customers in broader context in campaigns followed by an effective communication to the customers to increase their participation.

Sabrina Luckea, Et al., (2015) in their paper understood the effect on increase of sales if choice was provided to the underlying customer as regard to different causes of their wish to contribute, will be done on behalf of them if they buy the products of the company . The research showed the application of cause marketing to the product group of insurances. The study had found out that cause marketing was not a suitable tool for increasing the customers intention to purchase mobile insurance products. When applied to insurance products, there was no significant increase in the purchase of the insurance products even though there are donation linked.

Pushpinder Singh Gill, Et al., (2015) emphasize on concept of societal marketing that evolved a concept of cause marketing in India where the companies are associating their products with one or the other cause. The researchers attempts to understand what made the marketers adopt the cause marketing strategy and to identify whether the customers are aware of the concept. The study was conducted on small segment of the market which they technically called it millennial generation in the state of Punjab. Two key points of study, brand awareness and purchase intention of the customers on products contributing to cause marketing had positive outcome

Hassan Saberi , Et al.,(2014) in their article investigated on the kind of relationship between Cause Related Marketing campaigns and brand perceptions of customer purchase intentions in Iran. The empirical study proposed a hypothesis that cause marketing campaigns helped to enhance the brand awareness among the customers which influences their buying intentions. The hypothesis was proved to be true but the study further suggested though the cause marketing campaigns help for brand awareness , the selection of a non profit organization for cause matters

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much. The researchers calls for further study in other developing countries where the data can be collected from many more customers who were aware of the cause marketing campaigns.

Sonal Kureshi, Et al., (2014) mainly focused to provide insights about the nature and extent of Cause Related Marketing practices prevailing & established in India . The researchers examined the Cause Related Marketing initiatives announced during the period of 1999 to 2012 by visiting companies and partnering organizations and their websites . The research questions that were thrown light in the study included to identify the kinds of organizations who were doing these activities, the nature of the product and the type of social cause involved, the average duration of conducting these activities, the reach and the amount which was intended to be donated.

Raheleh Okhli, Et al.,(2014) surveyed on the consumer perception of cause-related marketing and brand image. The study was conducted on all the customers of stores in Gorgan , Iran. With a applied research using probability sampling method and through descriptive and inferential statistics a hypothesis for co-relation between cause marketing and brand image was tested .The hypothesis was accepted to be true that there was a significant relationship with reputation of the companies producing products with cause marketing campaigns which was indicative of the fact that the growth of retail chain stores in Gorgan province of Iran.

Vanhamme, J., Et al., (2012) has identified the significance to maintain the balance between the organization & the nature of cause that greatly influences corporate image as well as connection of influence between consumer preferences on brand choice , brand attitudes and the cause. The research was conducted as field experiment in Netherland which examined the influence of important three attributes namely cause type , cause scope and cause acuteness on the perception of consumers on corporate image. This study proved a hypothesis true that corporate image can be enhanced when consumer identifies the cause has mediating influence on it.

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To conceptualize Cause Marketing.  To study of evolution of Cause Marketing.  To explore few unique social oriented marketing strategies.  To analyze few popular Cause Marketing campaigns of various companies.

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4. METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH

In consideration to the above objectives the paper is a descriptive study based on secondary data . The secondary data was collected through published sources like magazines, books, journals, websites of companies which have adopted cause marketing.

5. CONCEPT OF CAUSE MARKETING

Cause marketing refers to a type of marketing involving the cooperative efforts of a for – profit business & a non – profit organization for mutual benefit. Most of the successful companies act as role models to other business and the wider community when they are committed to corporate responsibility which involves three aspects:-

 Running a successful business.  Being committed to ethical behavior across its operations.  Being committed to improving society.

Cause marketing or cause related marketing refers to a type of marketing involving the co- operative efforts of profit earning & non-profit organization for mutual benefits.Cause marketing encompasses a wide variety of commercial activity that aligns a company or brand with a cause to generate business and social benefits. Cause marketing may be defined as a potentially profit making initiative by a for profit company or brand to raise awareness, money or consumer engagement in a social or environmental issues.

‘Cause Marketing’ is not ‘corporate philanthropy’-which means the giving (without expectation of direct corporate gain) to charity in financial or in kind grants by companies .

‘Cause Marketing’ is not ‘corporate social responsibility’-which is operating a business in a manner that accounts for its social & environmental impact, with the aim to embrace responsibility for its actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on consumers, employees, the environment, local communities, stake holders and all other members of public.

‘Cause Marketing’ is not ‘’ because the latter is the use by non-profit and public organizations of marketing techniques to impact society behavior like stop smoking, don’t pollute, don’t use drugs.

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6. CAUSE MARKETING – HISTORY

The first known case of cause marketing in America was in March 1974 when Carr & Associates International was formed by John T Carr as way of giving back by engaging charitable causes & business to support each other. The organization was promoted in a way focus on enlisting business to give back referral fees on what they might normally spend for marketing; & having those funds redirected towards the charitable cause of the buyer’s choice.

In 1976, the first major cause marketing campaign was executed through a partnership between Marriott corporation & the March of Dimes, where the objective of former was to generate high cost effective public relation, for opening family entertainment & that of latter was to increase fundraising for cause . This program was conceived & directed by Bruce Burtch. Hence Bruce Burtch was called as “Father of cause Marketing”. He is credited with coining the phrase “Do Well by Doing Good”.

Another cause marketing campaign was initiated in Russia in 1979 by Rosica, Mulhern & Associates for famous Amos cookie. In this campaign Wally Amos became the National Spokesperson for the literacy volunteers of America. According to the organization, Wally has alerted more people to the illiteracy problem than any other person in history. This campaign of cause marketing was responsible for many new & expanded literacy programs.

In 1982, Nancy Brinker founder of Susan G Komen for the cure was an early pioneer of cause marketing allowing millions to participate in the fight against breast cancer through business that share Komen’s commitment to end the disease.

In 1983, American Express developed a campaign which donated funds to a number of different non-profit organization. Essentially every time someone used an American Express card in the area, a 2 – cent donation was triggered and each time new members applied for a card a larger contribution was made. The terms cause related marketing & cause marketing continued to grow in usage from time. In more recent years the term has come to describe a wider variety of marketing initiatives based on the co-operative efforts of business and charitable causes.

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7. OBJECTIVES OF CAUSE MARKETING

The objectives of cause marketing varies for non-profit organizations and for-profit organizations.

The objectives of cause marketing for non-profit organization are:-

 Funding  Greater public Awareness  Expansion of their services and programs.

The objectives of cause marketing for profit organization are:-

 To increase brand recognition.  To enhance values.  Greater sales generation.  Greater profits / revenue generation.  Customer brand loyalty enhancement.  Enhancing corporate status.  Pacifying customer groups & to promote repeat purchases.  To reach the new market segments and geographic segments.

8. UNIQUE SOCIAL ORIENTED MARKETING STRATEGIES

Social marketing is designing , implementing and controlling of programs to influence the social value contribution involving the considerations of product, , placement and . Various practices of social marketing which are recently in trend are as follows: 1) Corporate Social Marketing – The corporate governance and the behavioral change in the company through campaigns are projected . 2) Cause Related marketing- It deals with donation of certain percentage of revenues to a specific cause which is based on product sales during certain period of time. 3) Corporate Philanthropy: It is form of social marketing that deals with direct contributions to a cause or charity in form of donations or grants. 4) Community Volunteering: Companies itself engages its employees by providing voluntary services to the community.

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5) Responsible Business practices: This form adopts discretionary business and investment practices that support social causes. 6) Ecological Marketing: It is concerned with all marketing activities that may help to provide remedy for environmental problems.

9. ANALYSIS OF CAUSE MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

An overview of few cause marketing campaigns are explained here as under:

A) P&G “Shiksha” Campaign : The campaigns tagline was : Shiksha (Education): Padhega India, Badhega India. Shiksha began with P&G India’s research which revealed education as the one cause that consumers are most concerned about and are looking for a simple way to contribute to education. Shiksha was launched in 2005 to enable consumers to contribute towards the cause of education of under – privileged children through simple brand choices. Shiksha has till date helped more than 10lakh underprivileged children access their right to education. The program has built & supported over 140 schools across India, in partnership with NGO’s like round table India (RTI), save the children (STC), Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) and Navy Wives Welfare Association (NWWA).Shiksha’s vision is to help India to get 100percent Shiksha someday, and it is working towards this vision in partnership with NGO’s like AWWA, NWWA and RTI. B) TATA “Jaago re” Campaign : The campaign was introduced in 2008, by Tata tea Jaago Re or Jaagore is a cause marketing initative launched in India by Tata Tea, owned by Tata Global Beverages limited which works with NGO’s and other non - profit organization to raise awareness for specific causes.One Billions Votes-2009, Tata Tea JaagoRe has been an active components of Tata Tea’s marketing initiates that focussed on various campaigns through the years. 2010 – 2011:-Khilana Bandh, Pilana Shuru - Khilana Bandh was primarily aimed at establishing the fact that corruption can be combated if the citizens of the country did not engaged in bribery. ‘Jaago Re’ stimulated the citizens of the country to discourage bribery and not contribute to corruption. 2011 – 2012:-Soch Badlo - ‘Soch Badlo’ was aimed at bringing to light the positive stories within the country. “Jaago Re” chiefly addressed the positive side to a country.

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2012 – 2013:- Simplify: Jaago Re continued on a platform of positivity to “Simplify”, Simplify was launched on “WWW.jaagore.com” in a partnership with CHRI around the topic of “Know Your Police”. Content was created on this platform to simplify and educate readers on their rights and obligations in dealing with the Indian Police, and to make readers aware legal rights and duties. 2012 – 2013:-Choti Shuruaat :- With women’s Rights and safety at the forefront of most Indian’s minds and the Delhi Rape incident, JaagoRe to launch “Choti Shuruaat”. The objective of this campaign was to encourage individuals to make small gestures of change towards eliminating preconceived notions that cause Gender Stereotyping. C) Unilever “Domex Toilet Academy” Campaign :Domex, the leading toilet cleaner brand of Hindustan Unilever limited (HUL), announced the launch of Domex Toilet Academy (DTA) in November 2013.The academy aimed to build toilets in areas faced with the problem of open defecation and where people do not have access to improved sanitation. DTA helps India seeks to educate people on the hygenic sanitation and also help them to access to improved sanitation creating a network of local entrepreneurs to sell and build the toilets. In 2013, Domex reached out to its consumers to increase awareness about the sanitation crises in India through an online campaign. Consumers were also encouraged to help tackle the water crisis in India by buying a bottle of Domex toilet cleaner. For every bottle bought, HUL contributed five percent of revenues to sanitation programs of UNICEF. D) ITC “Rural education” Campaign-Rural Education Programme: A strong foundation in rural education and skill building for the children in the community is a major step towards ensuring improvements in the Human Development indices for the community as a whole. ITC’s Primary Education Programme seeks to address these challenges through a range of far-reaching solutions. The focus of the programme is to increase enrolments and minimize drop-outs. The program also enhances the learning environment by providing infrastructural support to Government schools which includes drinking water tanks, toilets, lights, fans, desks and chairs, structural additions and improvements, along with the training for the teachers and support for recreation and cultural activates. E) Lee “National Denim Day” campaign : Lee National Denim Day is a fund raiser created by Lee Jeans where participants donate $5 or more in exchange for wearing jeans to work. Since its inception in 1996, Lee National Denim Day participants have raised more than $ 91

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million for the fight against breast cancer with a Tag line-“This isn’t just another cause, another fund raiser.”Denim Day is among the most influential Cause Campaigns. Lee National Denim Day was ranked one of the top 10 most influential Cause Marketing Campaigns of all the time by the Cause Marketing Forum. Lee Jeans asked companies to go casual for a cause, inviting employees to wear their jeans on Denim Day in exchange for a $ 5 contribution to fight against breast cancer. F) Coco -Cola “ARCTIC HOME” Campaign: Coco – Cola most successful campaign ever “Arctic Home” was launched during the 2011 holiday season to raise wide spread and awareness about disappearing of polar bears in the world. “Polar bears are disappearing from Coco – Cola cans, but real bears are most likely to stick around, thanks to the wildly successful Arctic Home campaign.”- This was the famous line in millions of mouth. In just 5 months, Arctic Home raised nearly 2Million dollars for polar bear conversation. G) Nike “cancer charity” Campaign The “live strong” brand was launched by the nike foundation in 2003.Later Nike started to promote campaign with “Live strong” foundation in 2004.The live strong Foundation, formerly known as the Lance Armstrong Foundation, is a United States nonprofit organization, which provides support for people affected by cancer. Over the duration of its existence, the foundation has generated more than US $ 500 million worth of funds.With the Nike’s help, Lance Armstrong’s live strong cancer charity turned a little yellow wristband into a global symbol for cancer survivors. 80 million live strong bracelets have been sold, and have inspired several other charitable organizations to start their own bracelet selling programs.

10. BENEFITS OF CAUSE MARKETING

The most successful companies devote substantial energy for highlighting their cause efforts. For example, companies like Wall Mart, Ford Motor and Hewlett Packard all have links of their homepages dedicated to community values. The five benefits of great significance are as follows:-

a) Cause Marketing brings about financial benefits b) Cause Marketing boosts employee recruitment and extension c) Cause Marketing creates strong bond with customers d) Cause Marketing Campaigns improve stake holder trust e) Cause Marketing means an Image Boost

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11. LIMITATIONS OF CAUSE MARKETING

 There is a possibility that one of the entities involved (non – profit or corporation) will do something that hurts the others reputation.  It is huge time consuming & critical process for both corporations and non -profit organizations to choose their partners appropriately.  The trust worthiness of the non-profit will be weakened in the eyes of society.  There may be many shady companies that exploit good causes.  There is decrease of transparency and accountability of funds utilization for the causes for which it was raised.  Any kind of negative is also detrimental to the interests of the non – profit organizations as their existence directly depends on the faith which people have.  The practices of corruption or misuse may affect the reputation.

12. SUGGESTIONS Cause marketing is important for acquiring long term success , being each organisation’s essential competitive advantage and a path to society’s sustainable development. Few suggestions have been made on the basis of the study on cause marketing.

1) Cause marketing must be done more transparently not only by the companies which have taken up but also by the non-profit organisations have to be transparent to gain the confidence of the customers. 2) Most of the unsolved problems in the country remain untouched by the companies by way of cause marketing. So the companies should look through this. 3) It is very necessary on part of the customers to be more aware of the cause or campaign they are contributing a part of their money. 4) Since many people are still unaware of cause marketing word of mouth advertising to reach each customer has to be undertaken. 5) The companies must take special consideration about cause marketing before aligning cause with the brand so that they can get desired benefits.

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13. CONCLUSION

Cause marketing campaigns are one of the emerging multi beneficial tool for any company which have adopted it The role of supply to customers is completely seen in a different perspective from the view of cause marketing Many sales oriented companies have transformed themselves into a customer driven organization in last few decades. Marketing involves finding out what customers want and then providing it. However, responsible companies go beyond that and ask customers what part the customers wants the company to play in building a better society. It is the question which translates the concept of being a responsible company into a visible reality in a cause marketing program.

Knowing what a customer finds important and giving the customer an appropriate reason to buy a product by offering something valuable in a more unique way that retains the loyalty which can generate more repeated sales is where any marketing strategy is called to be successful.

References 1) Angela M. Eikenberry (2009). The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing. Public Administration Faculty Publications. Vol-ii. 2) Christopher Nilsso & Shadi Rahmani (2007),” Cause Related Marketing from a Swedish Retail Perspective”, Thesis at International Business Programme, Division of Industrial Marketing at Lulea University of technology. 3) HaeJoo Kim, Jae-Il Kim &WoongHee Han (2005). The Effects of Cause-Related Marketing on Company and Brand Attitudes. Seoul Journal of BusinessVolume 11. 4) Hassan Saberi ,& Abbas RezazadehKarsalari( 2014). The Interactive Effects of Cause Related Marketing Campaigns, Perceptual Brand Equity Dimensions and Cultural Values on Consumer Purchase Intentions. International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences. E-ISSN: 2225-8329, P-ISSN:2308-0337, Vol. 4, No.2, pp,117-126. 5) Mason, T. (2002, January 4). Good causes deliver for : do corporations gains from being socially responsible? Marketing, Pp11-19. 6) Paul N. Bloom, Steve Hoeffler, Kevin Lane Keller and Carlos E. Basurto Meza. (2006) . How Social-Cause Marketing Affects Consumer Perceptions. MIT Sloan Management Review. Vol. 47

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7) Polonsky, M. J., & Wood, G. (2001). Can the over commercialization of cause-related marketing harm society? Journal of Macro marketing, 21(1), 8-22. 8) Pringle, H., & Thompson, M. (1999). Brand spirit: how cause related marketing builds brands. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. 9) Pushpinder Singh Gill ,&ShailRaina. Cause Related Marketing and it’s Effect on Millennial. IOSR Journal of Business and Management e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668. Pp 60-67. 10) Rizwan Shabir ,Ahmad Sohail Khan and Waseem Hassan (2017), “Effects of Cause- Related Marketing(CRM) on Buying Decision: Does it Matter in FMCG Sector”, City University Research Journal, Special issue : AIC PP 142-152. 11) Sabrina Luckea, &JorgHeinzeb (2015). The role of choice in cause-related marketing – investigating the underlying mechanisms of cause and product involvement. International Scientific Conference Economics and Management, Proceedings - Social and Behavioral Sciences 213,pp 647 – 653. 12) Scott, A., & Solomon, P. J. (2003). The Marketing of Cause-Related Events: A Study of Participants as Consumers. Journal of Non-profit & Public Sector Marketing, 11(2),pp 43- 66. 13) Smith, W., & Higgins, M. (2000). Cause-related marketing: ethics and the ecstatic. Business & Society, 39(3), pp 304-322. 14) Sonal Kureshi&SujoThomas(2014). Cause Related Marketing - An Indian Overview. Research and Publications IIM Ahmedabad .W.P. No.2014-04-03 . 15) Vanhamme, J., Lindgreen, A., Reast, J., and Popering, N. van (2012), “To do well by doing good: improving corporate image through cause-related marketing”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 109, No. 3, pp. 259-274. (ISSN 0167-4544). 16) Wood, G. (1998). Cause related marketing: caveat emptor? Proceedings of the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference, Dunedin, New Zealand. 17) Thamaraiselvan Natarajan, Senthil Arasu Balasubramaniam & Daniel Inbaraj . (2016). A Journey of Cause Related Marketing from 1988 to 2016. International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 11, No. 11; 2016 ISSN 1833-3850 E-ISSN 1833-8119 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education.

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