Company-cause fit and celebrity endorsements affecting skepticism towards cause-related marketing campaigns supporting cancer research
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Marketing
Language
en
Pages
65 + 5
Series
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of company-cause fit and endorsement-cause fit on consumers’ attitudes towards cause-related marketing campaigns. In order to examine the role of company-cause fit in cause-related marketing, the study paired the cause of supporting cancer research with two hypothetical companies representing car manufacturing and organic food industry. The research was conducted through an online survey completed by 245 Finnish university students. In the survey, the participants were asked to rate likert-scale items based on their attitudes towards the cause, the company and its campaign and the perceived fit between the cause and the company. The survey involved six different manipulations concerning the company-cause fit and endorsement-cause fit of the campaign. The hypotheses of the study were tested using a two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Supporting the hypotheses of the study, the results show that company-cause fit has a significant impact on skepticism towards the campaign. Furthermore, consumers’ level of skepticism is lower when the fit between the cause and the company is high. In addition, the results of the study also suggest that a high company-cause fit improves the consumers’ perceptions of the company image. According to the findings, a high endorsement-cause fit results in lower levels of skepticism and a better company image when the company-cause fit is high. However, when the fit between the company and the cause is low, a low endorsement-cause fit performs better in terms of consumer attitudes and company image. Nevertheless, these differences between the manipulations of endorsement-cause fit were not significant which resulted in rejecting the hypotheses concerning celebrity endorsements. The findings of the study indicate that in order to improve consumers’ attitudes towards cause-related marketing and enhance the company image, managers need to choose a cause which aligns well with the company values. In addition, although the influence of celebrity endorsements and endorsement-cause fit was not found significant in this study, the trend suggests that the positive influence of a high company-cause fit can be optimized with a celebrity endorsement that has a genuine connection with the cause.Description
Thesis advisor
Falk, TomasVainiala, Iiro
Keywords
cause-related marketing, consumer attitudes, celebrity endorsement, skepticism, company image