Cause Related Marketing Lifts Sales
Cause-related marketing can increase sales as much as 74 percent in certain consumer-goods categories, according to a recent study by Cone and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. In particular the study found a:
- 74 percent increase in actual purchases of a shampoo brand after it had been associated with a cause. Nearly half (47 percent) of participants who saw the cause-related message chose the brand, while only 27 percent of those who saw the generic corporate ad chose the brand.
- 28 percent increase in actual purchase for a toothpaste brand when associated with a cause. More than two-thirds (64 percent) who saw the cause message chose the target brand vs. 50 percent who viewed the generic corporate ad.
Researchers exposed participants to either a cause-related or a generic corporate ad for one of four focus brands in the toothpaste, shampoo, chips and light-bulb categories. The participants then entered a mock convenience store with nearly 150 SKUs and were given real money to purchase a product of each type.
To validate these sales increases for shampoo and toothpaste, Cone and Duke then replicated the study online among a sample of more than 1,000 adults, finding:
- Participants spent nearly twice as long reviewing cause-related ads vs. general corporate ads.
- This resulted in a sales increase (19 percent) similar to the lab study for the target toothpaste brand.
- Though the shampoo brand increased only by a modest 5 percent, sales among its target audience of women increased by nearly 14 percent.
Thus, the study revealed higher sales in two of the four categories (toothpaste and shampoo), and modest increases in the other two categories (chips and light bulbs) because of the cause-related ads.
Consumer responses demonstrated that the issue, the nonprofit organization involved with the brand, and the inherent nature of products were key factors in cause-related purchasing.
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