Does Cause-proximity Matters in Cause-related Marketing?

Over the past 30 years cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns have taking ground. In the business environment of today, a multitude of companies have aligned themselves with plethora of worthy causes. CRM benefits both the sponsoring company and the cause supported. Companies benefit as CRM is normally linked to a purchase of the sponsoring company’s product and thus brings profit to the companies. Meanwhile, causes benefits from the increasing awareness and funds for the causes through CRM campaigns conducted. Cause-related campaigns support causes at both local and international levels. Hence, examining whether cause-proximity may influence consumers’ response to CRM is crucial. Furthermore, there have been very few studies that focused on this matter. Hence, the current study is carried out to: (1) highlights CRM and CRM’s campaigns in Malaysia and (2) examine the impact of cause-proximity on consumers’ response to CRM in Malaysia. This study employed an experimental method; a 1X2 between subjects factorial design. The results showed that cause-proximity has significant impact on CRM evaluation. More specifically, the findings revealed that CRM campaign links to a local cause produces more favorable response among the Malaysian consumers as compared with CRM links with an international cause.