The impact of cause-related marketing on preference for visual salience

Abstract

Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) refers to the marketing practice of donating proceeds from product sales to designated charitable causes. It is prevalent for marketers to choose or design a certain product for CRM. However, little attention in academic is paid to what aesthetic features should be considered for CRM. To fulfill this gap, the current research investigates how CRM impacts consumers’ aesthetic preferences for products. I posit that CRM enhances consumer preference for products’ visual salience by increasing feelings of pride. A set of empirical experiments validates the proposition. The study results demonstrate that CRM enhances consumers’ preference for visual salience. This effect is based on the affective value of visual salience. Purchasing cause-related products triggers the feeling of pride, a self-conscious emotion. Consequently, consumers choose products with visually salient designs to express such feelings of pride. Moreover, the current research investigates the boundary conditions of the effect of CRM on preference for visual salience in terms of product designs, marketing practices, and consumer features. To be more specific, CRM will not increase consumers’ preference for visual salience if there is a visual cue of CRM attached to products. Furthermore, if a price discount on cause-related products is provided, consumers will not prefer visually salient products anymore. At last, the effect of CRM on preference for visual salience will be stronger among consumers who score high on the dimension of moral identity symbolization.