Cause related marketing: review of literature and perspectives

Care about social issues has become a part of marketing strategies, at least for large companies. Moreover, nowadays consumers are more and more aware of their “power” to put pressure on companies by selecting products from responsible firms. One branch of marketing particularly inserted in this scenario is the so-called Cause Related Marketing (CRM), which can be considered a deriving subset of the more general concept of Corporate Social Responsibility. In this study the authors analyze literature focused on CRM, in particular by reviewing firstly how the concept of CMR has changed during the last decades, considering consumers’ increased consciousness; secondly applied research on CRM has been shortly analyzed; furthermore literature connected to CRM benefits has been described. Literature highlights that women are more in line with companies which implement this kind of marketing and that the application of CRM affects consumers’ behavioural response. In the final part of this paper the authors present the ongoing research project, which is currently being developed by means of a questionnaire administered to Italian consumers.