The Influence of Cause Marketing on Consumer Pride, Purchase Intention and Brand Evangelism: A Focus on the Apparel Industry

Cause related marketing initiatives have become an extremely popular strategy of marketing used by brands in todays’ world, now, more so than ever. Consumer behaviour towards cause related marketing has generally been positive and has led to an increase in the purchase intention as well as the final purchase of the customer. Consumer pride as well as satisfaction with a product or a brand leads to the spread of information about the particular brand within the customer network. The push strategy of marketing is no longer relevant to todays’ market and customers are looking to be associated with a brand that goes beyond the norm of selling products and is making important contributions to the welfare of the society or is taking an important stand on a particular social cause. The purpose of this study is to analyse the influence of Cause related marketing strategies in the dynamic apparel industry and the extent to which it influences purchase intention, consumer pride and eventually lead to brand evangelism, An evangelist being a customer that actively defends and support a brand across platforms and through word of mouth. Customer purchase today is increasingly research based and highly dependent on the opinions of other customers. In regard to this, evangelism, if achieved by a brand can be one of the most cost effective yet most impactful marketing strategies for the brand.
The study uses quantitative and qualitative measures to analyse the impact of Cause Marketing on purchase intention and brand evangelism. An empirical study was conducted through a self-administered survey which helps determine the extent to which this effect holds true in the apparel industry. ANOVA and Regression analysis helped determine the relationship between various demographic factors and the variables of the model.
The study aims to explore the relational gap between variables such as Cause marketing, consumer pride and brand evangelism. Furthermore, the study also aims to explore the experimental gap on the impact of consumer cause identification on purchase intention. This information will help the industry curate their advertisements and other promotional activities accordingly.
Keywords: Cause Marketing, Consumer pride, Purchase intention, Brand evangelism, Brand equity, Perceived brand image.

Ms. Kavya Sahadevan

Ms. Kavya Sahadevan, has a bachelors degree in Economics Honors and completed her MBA with specialization in Marketing from Christ University, Bangalore, India. She is deeply passionate about research and her current field of placement is working as a Research Specialist with Gartner Inc. India.

Dr. Kavitha R Gowda

Dr. Kavitha R Gowda, PhD, MPhil, MBA, B.E currently working as Assistant Professor at School of Business and Management, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) Bangalore, Karnataka, has a rich experience of over 22 years, passionate of teaching and research. In her teaching journey from 2003, she has published more than 22 papers in esteemed Scopus indexed, ABDC, B & C Category, Open access, UGC listed journals, authored 5 books, presented 50+ papers in conferences, co-inventor of 3 Indian patents, was awarded with Best Paper Award thrice, is in BoS for few universities, recipient of Excellence in Service by INSO and has been consistently rated high by her students. Orcid id 0000-0002-4221-2023.

Dr. R. Satish Kumar

Dr. R. Satish Kumar, currently working as Professor-Marketing Area and Head-International Connect, CMS Business School, Jain University, Bangalore, India & has 31 years of experience in industry and academics having served at senior level positions in companies such as NIIT Ltd., Radiant Software Ltd, iCMG Pvt. Ltd, Firepro Systems Pvt.Ltd (Panasonic Group Company) and taught at T.A.Pai Management Institute Manipal, Alliance University, and IFIM Business School. Served as visiting faculty at IIM Bangalore, Swiss Business School, and AUT University New Zealand.