EXPRESS: Cause-Related Marketing as Sales Promotion

This study presents the first field investigation of the sales impact of cause-related marketing promotions (CMPs) in retail settings. Whereas prior work primarily studies CMPs in simplified experimental settings, actual FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) markets are considerably more complex; ergo, consumers are unlikely to consider and evaluate all brands and CMPs in detail. Our analysis based on 63 CMPs across 20 categories therefore investigates the short-term sales impact of CMP as a function of the brand and category context in which they are executed. On average, CMPs run eleven weeks and donate 3.2 percent of product price, resulting in an average sales lift of 4.9 % per week. Our findings suggest that a necessary precondition for CMP effectiveness is that consumers notice it at the point of sale and hence have considered the CMP brand for factors other than the CMP itself. Accordingly, the sales impact of CMP can more than double when the category assortment is smaller with less price dispersion, the brand is a category leader, or is priced below category average. Brands operating in less favorable market conditions can still achieve above-average CMP impact by combining CMPs with price promotions to ensure consumer consideration.