Cause-related marketing: how generation Y responds

Generation Y, children born to baby-boomers, is widely considered to be the next big generation. Businesses are therefore struggling to find ways to capture a piece of this market. Could cause-related marketing be the answer? Employs an experimental design to examine how college-age Generation Y consumers respond to a cause-related marketing (CRM) offer based on four structural elements. Also examines the potential impacts of socio-demographic characteristics of participants. The results indicate that a CRM offer is more likely to elicit a more positive response to a disaster cause than an ongoing cause when businesses use non-transaction-based and long-term/frequent support. Finds that females, social science majors, parents’ annual income and previous donation activity have significant impact on the evaluation of a CRM offer. There is a positive relationship between evaluation of a CRM offer and purchase intent toward the offer.