Study: Cause-Relating Marketing Fires Up Sales
ADOTAS – Do-gooders rejoice: it seems that “cause-related marketing” can increase sales by up to 74%, according to a Cone and Duke University study.During the first phase of the study at Duke University, 182 participants evaluated a new regional magazine and were exposed to either a cause-related or generic corporate advertisement for one of four focus brands. Afterward, they entered a mock convenience store with nearly 150 SKUs and were given real money to purchase a product in each of the four categories. Results revealed:
Substantial cause-related sales lift for two of the four consumer packaged goods categories tested:
- 74% increase in actual purchase for a shampoo brand when associated with a cause (47% of participants who saw the cause-related message chose the brand while only 27% of those who saw the generic corporate advertisement chose the brand).
- 28% increase in actual purchase for a toothpaste brand when associated with a cause (64% of participants who saw the cause message chose the target brand vs. 50% who viewed the generic corporate advertisement).
- Modest increases in the other two product categories tested (chips and light bulbs) – Qualitative consumer responses showed that the issue, the nonprofit and the inherent nature of products were key factors in making cause-related purchasing decisions and helped explain why movement in these categories was not significant.
In the second phase of the research, Cone and Duke validated the sales increases for shampoo and toothpaste by replicating the study online among a nationally projectable sample of more than 1,000 adults. The results revealed that participants spent nearly twice as long reviewing cause-related ads versus the general corporate advertisements. This resulted in a sales increase (19 percent) similar to the lab study for the target toothpaste brand. And although the shampoo brand increased only by a modest 5 percent, sales among its target audience of women increased by nearly 14 percent.
Other key findings from the study:
- 84% want to select their own cause
- 83% say personal relevance is key
- 80% believe the specific nonprofit associated with the campaign matters
- 77% say practical incentives for involvement, such as saving money or time, are important
- 65% find emotional incentives for involvement, such as it making them feel good or alleviating shopping guilt, important.
Reader Comments.
No comments yet
Leave a Comment
Article Sponsor
More News
Spotlight
Mobile to the RescueADOTAS EXCLUSIVE — The industry is still wary about mobile advertising — does it work, how significant is the ROI [...] more...
Features
- Small Business Survival: Geographical Targeting, Audience & Intent December 4th 2008
- Down Year Will Bring Opportunities December 3rd 2008
- Mobile to the Rescue December 2nd 2008
- Ideas On Effective Management December 2nd 2008
- Quality Video: DIY (Cheap) or Else December 1st 2008
Latest News
- Layoffs: A Holiday To Remember December 4th 2008 ADOTAS — A lot of unhappy people will be hitting [...] more »
- Credit Card Free Fall December 4th 2008 ADOTAS — The Internet will end as we know it [...] more »
- Marketers Not Poking Facebook December 4th 2008 ADOTAS — Top marketing people still don’t view social networking [...] more »
- The Rich Still Have More Fun December 4th 2008 ADOTAS — As everyone drowns in the economic tsunami, the [...] more »
- Microsoft buys Yahoo talent December 4th 2008 ADOTAS — By the time Yahoo has a CEO, it [...] more »
- Suing The (Ad) Messenger December 4th 2008 ADOTAS — First it was the media’s fault. Now it’s [...] more »
- Reality Bites Google December 3rd 2008 ADOTAS – Google’s era of open-handedness is screeching to a [...] more »
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
Recent Comments
- Edward: Ivan, I appreciate your post. I think we do a good job, especially in our
- Ivan: I'm getting tired of all these negative articles. Why not focus on how to make
- Sid Blair: I was laid off several months ago from my agency and while I haven't found
- Hudey: This article doesn't mention our technology, but it's as if this article was written about
