Cause-related marketing on Facebook

: how successful is it really?

Abstract

One challenge currently affecting the Third Sector is the rising number of non-profit organizations fighting for limited pools of resources and attention, which leads them to look for alternative ways to break out of the clutter. In this context, cause-related marketing is rising in popularity. This is a fundraising technique in which the donation is dependent on a consumer behavior that holds a direct connection to the firm’s financial performance, typically the purchasing of a sponsoring brand. Nevertheless, as companies and non-profits invest on online social networks and Facebook in particular as tools to relate to their publics, these practices are gradually becoming digital in nature, thus creating new challenges and opportunities. This dissertation thus aims to study this new context for cause-related marketing by exploring the value added by Facebook to its effectiveness. The paper revolves around the case of AJUDE, a non-profit that recently engaged on a Facebook cause-related marketing campaign with Biolotus Health Care, a pharmaceutical firm. A video featuring one of the company’s brands was posted on the network informing that for every “like” it received 0.25€ would be donated to the non-profit. Through this example, students and instructors will have firsthand contact with the difficulties of devising successful cause-related marketing campaigns on Facebook and of measuring their impact afterwards. The primary market research undertaken by the author adds to this by tapping into consumers’ evaluation of online and offline formats in terms of participation intentions and attitudes towards the non-profit, the company and the campaign itself. In the end, offline formats are more effective in generating positive attitudes towards the firm, especially regarding purchasing intentions, whereas Facebook manages to reach greater participation intentions. The author further concludes that although the campaign format does affect the program’s success, no mode can be proclaimed as the most effective by itself since it will depend on the specific strategies and investment of the organizations.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Celeste (Supervisor)