CAUSE-RELATED MARKETING AND CAUSE SPONSORSHIP’S COMPANY-CAUSE FIT AND eWOM: SPREADING CSR ON FACEBOOK

Abstract

Businesses should utilize Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) marketing communications to show genuine support for stakeholders affected by the Covid19 pandemic. This study focuses on two forms of CSR marketing communications: cause-related marketing (CRM) and cause sponsorship (CS). This research would look into how CRM and CS’s company cause fit will affect eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth), a type of consumer response. A survey-based within-subjects trial of CRM and CS x 2 company-cause fit will be conducted on active Facebook users aged 18 to 64 years old. Ten (10) pre-selected firms from the Philippines' Top 30 Businesses were selected. These companies posted both CRM and CS Facebook messages. The CRM posts will be shown to half of the sample size (N=272), while the CS posts will be shown to the other half (N=272) and graded via a questionnaire. The research concluded that there were positive relationships between CRM and CS’s company-cause fit and eWOM. Between the two, CRM had a greater effect on eWOM as compared to CS. This was also evident in the models. The higher the company-cause fit, the higher the eWOM response. The suggestion to companies was to concentrate on CRM FB posts with the high company-cause fit so that the occurrence of eWOM would be higher especially during periods of crisis like the Covid19 pandemic. For future researchers, other forms of CSR marketing communications and consumer responses may be studied to further increase the effectiveness of Facebook CSR posts.