Mental accounting and cause related marketing strategies

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1 Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark (2010) 7: DOI /s ORIGINAL ARTICLE Mental accounting and cause related marketing strategies Ilaria Baghi & Enrico Rubaltelli & Marcello Tedeschi Received: 22 April 2010 / Accepted: 3 August 2010 / Published online: 11 August 2010 # Springer-Verlag 2010 Abstract The aim of the present study is to verify if people s perception of cause related marketing (CRM) strategies is influenced by the mental accounting format used to present the price of the product and the amount of money donated to the social cause. However, such an effect is conditional on the type of product used for the campaign as the mental accounting is only expected to enhance the consumers perception of CRM programs supported by hedonic products and not their perception of programs supported by utilitarian products. In Experiment 1, results show that only for hedonic products an integrated mental accounting induces people to perceive the CRM program more positively than a separated one. In Experiment 2, the integrated mental accounting reduces people s guilt about the purchase of hedonic products, therefore explaining why this manipulation has a different impact on hedonic and utilitarian products. Keywords Cause related marketing. Mental accounting. Consumer behavior. Product type 1 Introduction In recent years, more and more companies all around the world are associating their products to some sort of charitable projects. Pringle and Thompson (1999) motivate I. Baghi (*) : M. Tedeschi Department of Social, Cognitive, and Quantitative Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Viale Allegri, 9, Reggio Emilia, Italy Ilaria.baghi@unimore.it M. Tedeschi marcello.tedeschi@unimore.it E. Rubaltelli Department of Developmental and Socialization Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, Padova, Italy enrico.rubaltelli@unipd.it

2 146 I. Baghi et al. this trend suggesting that adopting a cause can give a brand or a product a credo or a belief system and result in a significantly improved consumer perception and purchase intention. Doing so, companies aim to create a positive brand image and to increase market shares. Such a strategy has been defined cause related marketing (CRM; Varadarajan and Menon 1988), that is the process of formulating and implementing marketing activities that are characterized by an offer from the firm to contribute a specified amount to a designated cause when consumers engage in revenue-providing exchanges that satisfy organizational and individual objectives. This kind of marketing activity is a way to link products with a socially responsible program following a strategy, which is ultimately directed to strength the positive and emotional image of the product itself and to increase its market shares (Varadarajan and Menon 1988). In this sense many studies demonstrated that CRM strategies may lead to favorable attitudes toward the socially responsible brand and its products (Brown and Dacin 1997; Ross et al. 1992; Webb et al. 2000) and influence purchase intention (Sen and Morwitz 1996). Previous research showed that CRM is more effective when the social cause is associated with an hedonic product rather than an utilitarian one (Strahilevitz 1999; Strahilevitz and Meyers 1998). Strahilevitz (1999) suggested that such a result should depend on the guilt that consumers feel when buying a product that has no utilitarian value (see also Dhar and Wertenbroch 2000). Therefore, knowing that by purchasing an hedonic product they are also helping to raise money in support of a social cause increases the consumers willingness to buy it. In turn, that makes the CRM program more effective. In the present paper, the aim is to show that the difference found between hedonic and utilitarian products is conditional to the way the price of the product and the amount donated to the social cause are presented. There are two different ways in which the price of CRM products can be expressed. One way is to segregate the price of the product from the amount donated to the social cause (segregated mental account: e.g., Mp3 player Brand X: $ $8.00 which will be donated to support medical research). This format has the advantage to state explicitly which amount of money will be donated to the social cause. However, it may also induce people to think that it is a surcharge to the regular price of the product and that they are asked to pay for the donation. A second way is to combine these two amounts of money and present a single price (integrated mental account: e.g., Mp3 player Brand X: $ of which 5% is donated to support medical research). This format makes less clear which amount of money will be donated to the social cause since the consumer is asked to calculate it. On the other hand, in such a condition it looks like the company is actually giving away part of its revenues in order to support the social cause and the consumer should not be induced to think that he/she is asked to pay any surcharge. Coherently with the above reasoning, the past literature on mental accounting (Thaler 1985; 1999) suggests that the second solution (single price) should always be perceived as more attractive and should also induce the consumers to perceive the social cause more positively. Such a conclusion is based on the hedonic framing explanation of mental accounting, which suggests that people feel less sad when presented with a single loss than with several smaller losses that add up to the same value of the single one (Thaler and Johnson 1990). Thaler (1999) suggested that the

3 Mental accounting and cause related marketing strategies 147 hedonic framing explanation is only valuable to describe how people react to different presentations of the same events, whereas they seem unable to actually edit the way information are presented in order to maximize their hedonistic reactions. However, subsequent studies showed that, despite the general inability to integrate losses, contextual variables may help people to do so (Bonini and Rumiati 2002; Kim 2006). For instance, Kim (2006) was able to show particular conditions in which the integration-of-losses prevails on the segregation. This author suggested that the salience of the information plays an important role in leading people to segregate or integrate two different payments. In a broader sense, salience is the degree to which a stimulus stands out in a situation (Augoustinos et al. 1995). In other words, how information facilitates or hampers people s way to process it has an influence on their decision-making (Darke and Chung 2005; Heath et al. 1995). For example, if segregation of a payment has a visually salient surcharge then people should see it as a separate entity and the segregated prices should induce a less favorable opinion. On the contrary, if the surcharge is not visually salient people should pay less attention to it and not consider it as a separate entity (Kim 2006). These results are coherent with our hypothesis that the mental accounting format should play a role in the consumers perception of CRM programs. The segregated format should make the donation look as a visually salient surcharge reducing people s support for the CRM strategy. Recent research on price partitioning showed that presenting a price partitioned in a set of mandatory charges can either increase or decrease people s preference for a product (Bertini and Wathieu 2008). In fact, price partitioning can be useful when it helps to direct consumer s selective attention to secondary attributes that would be overlooked when they are presented through an all-inclusive price format (similar to what it is called here integrated mental accounting). However, as Bertini and Wathieu suggested, if the secondary attribute made more visible by the price partitioning is mediocre, firms should be better off using an all-inclusive format. The intent of the present study is to apply this reasoning to CRM strategies since the donation to the social cause is not an attribute that can improve the consumers experience with the product (differently, for example, from the in-flight entertainment used by Bertini and Wathieu 2008, Experiment 1). Therefore, even from the point of view of price partitioning the integrated format should be more effective than the separated one when presented with a CRM campaign. Once again, the hypothesis would be that consumers should have a positive attitude toward a brand that supports a social cause. However, such attitude should be more positive when the price is integrated since when presented with the separate mental accounting consumers can focus their attention on a sum of money that they are paying for a feature of the product that they are not going to experience. Moreover, the hypothesis is to find an interaction between the mental accounting (price format) and the type of product associated with the CRM campaign. In particular, a difference between integrated and segregated mental accounts should only be found for the hedonic products and not for the utilitarian ones as for the hedonic products the integrated mental account, compared with the segregated one, should help to reduce the sense of guilt as well as to avoid the inference that there is some sort of surcharge to the regular price of a product that is not fulfilling any instrumental goal.

4 148 I. Baghi et al. In addition, a CRM program associated with an utilitarian product should not be perceived more positively when the mental accounting is integrated rather than segregated. This is because people do not feel guilty about buying an utilitarian product that is fulfilling an instrumental goal therefore the integrated mental accounting should not contribute to make consumers feeling better about their purchase. In other words, the focus of interest lies in showing that the effectiveness of a CRM program does not simply depend on the type of product it is associated with (as suggested by previous research; see Strahilevitz 1999) nor it depends just on the format used to communicate how much money is donated to the social cause. In detail, the hypotheses are the following: H1: The type of mental accounting should influence people s ratings of attractiveness of the cause related program when the presented with a hedonistic product. No influence is expected for utilitarian goods. H2: The type of mental accounting should also influence people feelings toward the social cause when the cause related product has a hedonistic nature. No influence is expected for utilitarian goods. H3: Mental accounting should influence people perceived usefulness of the CRM program when they are presented with hedonistic products. No influence is expected for utilitarian goods. H4: Mental accounting should influence people trust in the CRM program when the cause related product has a hedonistic nature. No influence is expected for utilitarian goods. 2 Experiment Method Participants One-hundred and two university students (44% males; mean age 22 years) took part in the study. They were presented with either the integrated mental accounting format or the separated one. Materials and procedure Each participant was presented with four hypothetical scenarios describing products involved in a CRM program. The four products were the following: Mp3 player, digital camera, microwave oven, and laser printer. The first two products were supposed to be hedonic whereas the other two were supposed to be utilitarian. To check for the hedonic and pleasure-driven nature of the products participants were asked to rate them on the following two dimensions: pleasant/unpleasant and satisfactory/unsatisfactory. Participants answered using 7-point scales ranging from 1 (respectively: very unpleasant and very unsatisfactory ) to 7 (respectively: very pleasant and very satisfactory ). The price of the cause related products was manipulated accordingly with the two different mental accounting formats: separated (e.g. Mp3 player , the 8.00 are donated to support medical research) and integrated (e.g. Mp3 player , 5% of the price is donated to support medical research). Each participant saw the four cause related products with the same mental accounting format (either

5 Mental accounting and cause related marketing strategies 149 four CRM products presented using an integrated mental accounting or four CRM products presented using a separated mental accounting). There were four dependent variable. Each of them was tested with a separate question. The first question asked to rate how attractive or unattractive do you find the product? on a 9-point scale ranging from 4 ( very unattractive ) to+4( very attractive ). The second question asked the participants to state how strong a feeling do you have toward the social cause supported by the product? on a 9-point scale ranging from 0 ( not strong at all ) to 8( very strong ). In the third question participants had to judge how useful they perceived to be the support given by the product to the social cause on a 9-point scale ranging from 0 ( not useful at all ) to 8( very useful ). Finally, in the last question they were asked to rate how confident are you about the good use of the money collected selling the product? on a 9-point scale ranging from 0 ( not confident at all ) to 8( very confident ). The experimental design was 2 (mental accounting) x 4 (products) with the last factor within subjects. 2.2 Results The first analysis assessed the manipulation check, therefore it was tested whether participants perceived the hedonic versus utilitarian nature of the four products accordingly with our expectations. The ratings on the pleasant/unpleasant and satisfactory/unsatisfactory scales showed that the manipulation of the products typology was perceived as expected. Results showed that participants judged the hedonic products (Mp3 player and digital camera) significantly more pleasant and satisfying then the utilitarian ones (laser printer and microwave oven). Contrast effects showed that participants judged the Mp3 player more pleasant (M p =5.73) and satisfying (M s =5.44) than the utilitarian products: respectively F(1, 101)=92.77; μ 2 =.32; p<.01 and F(1, 101)=19.04; μ 2 =..09; p<.01 for the comparisons with the laser printer (M p =4.52 and M s =4.95) and F(1, 101)=68.64; μ 2 =.26; p<.01 and F(1, 101)=16.80; μ 2 =.07; p<.01 for the comparisons with the microwave oven (M p =4.68 and M s =4.93). Similarly, the digital camera (M p =5.77 and M s =5.73) induced higher pleasure and satisfaction than the two utilitarian products: respectively F(1, 101) =61.85; μ 2 =.24; p<.01 and F(1, 101)=45.97; μ 2 =.19; p<.01 for the comparisons with the laser printer and F(1, 101)=76.72; μ 2 =.28; p<.01 and F(1, 101)=43.09; μ 2 =.18; p<.01 for the comparisons with the microwave oven. At this point the attention can be turned to the question presented to measure participants perception of the CRM programs described using either one or the other mental accounting format. Analyses of variance showed that the hypothesized interactions between the condition (integrated versus separated mental accounting) and the type of product (hedonic versus utilitarian) were significant for all the four dependent measures: respectively, F(1, 101)=16.96; μ 2 =.14; p <.01 for attractiveness; F(1, 101)=16.23; μ 2 =.14; p<.01 for strength of the feeling; F(1, 101)=24.08; μ 2 =.19; p<.01 for usefulness of the contribution to the social cause; F (1, 101)=28.14; μ 2 =.22; p<.01 for confidence in the good use of money. Across all the dependent measures the CRM campaign associated with the Mp3 player was judged more positively when using the integrated mental accounting

6 150 I. Baghi et al. format then the segregated one (always p<.01; see Table 1 for the mean ratings). The same pattern of results was found for the CRM campaign associated with the digital camera (always p<.02 or lower). No significant difference between the two mental accounting formats was found on any of the dependent variables when the CRM campaigns were associated with the utilitarian products (see Table 2). 2.3 Discussion The results of Experiment 1 supported the hypothesis about the effect that the mental accounting has on the consumers perception of a CRM program. Reesults found support for the interaction between the mental accounting factor and the type of product. As expected, the manipulation of the mental accounting format was effective only when the CRM program was associated with the hedonic products and allowed to significantly improve the perception of this marketing strategy when the mental accounting was integrated rather than separated. On the other hand, when the CRM program was associated with the utilitarian products no significant difference between the two mental accounting conditions were found. The main result of Experiment 1 is to show that a CRM strategy is not necessarily more effective when it is associated with hedonic products, as previous findings would suggest (see Strahilevitz 1999). Indeed, note that, coherently with these findings, previous studies found a difference between hedonic and utilitarian products since they were using an integrated mental accounting format rather than a segregated one. Otherwise, on the basis of the present findings, no difference would have been found. 3 Experiment 2 In Experiment 1, the aim is to show that the advantage of a CRM program applied to an hedonic product is limited to the use of a particular format to communicate the fraction of the price that is donated to the social cause. Past research (Strahilevitz Table 1 Mean ratings for the two hedonic products on the four dependent variables Integrated Mental Accounting Separated Mental Accounting Mp3 player N Mean SD N Mean SD Attractiveness Strength of the feeling Usefulness of the CRM campaign Trust in the good use of money Digital camera N Mean SD N Mean SD Attractiveness Strength of the feeling Usefulness of the CRM campaign Trust in the good use of money

7 Mental accounting and cause related marketing strategies 151 Table 2 Mean ratings for the two utilitarian products on the four dependent variables Integrated Mental Accounting Separated Mental Accounting Microwave oven N Mean SD N Mean SD Attractiveness Strength of the feeling Usefulness of the CRM campaign Trust in the good use of money Printer N Mean SD N Mean SD Attractiveness Strength of the feeling Usefulness of the CRM campaign Trust in the good use of money ) suggested that the CRM strategy is more effective because the link to the social cause allows the consumer to reduce their guilty toward the purchase of a product which is not fulfilling a functional goal. The same explanation may also account for the difference that was found between the integrated and segregated mental accounting formats. The rationale for such an explanation is that when the donation is integrated in the price of the product consumers can feel that by buying an hedonic product they are doing a good thing therefore reducing their guilt. In addition, the integrated format should make people think that the brand is giving up part of its revenues in order to help the social cause. On the other hand, the separated mental accounting should be unable to make the consumer feel better about the purchase of an unnecessary hedonic product. Experiment 2 will test this hypothesis asking people how guilty they feel about the purchase of a series of hedonic products that are supporting a social cause. In other words, people should feel less guilt when the price of the product and the amount of the donation are presented using an integrated mental accounting format rather than a segregated mental accounting. In addition, Experiment 2 aims to test whether people judge their contribution to the social cause as more important when the mental accounting is integrated. Experiment 1 showed that, for the hedonic products, people considered more useful the contribution made by the brand to the social cause when the mental accounting was integrated rather than segregated. Coherently, consumers should feel that their own contribution to the social cause is more important when the price of the product and the donation are expressed as a single price rather than two separated amounts of money. In detail, the first two hypotheses were the same as in Experiment 1, whereas, in Experiment 2, two further hypotheses were tested: H6 The type of mental accounting should influence people s perceived importance of their contribution to the social cause associated with the purchase of hedonistic cause related products. H7 The type of mental accounting should also influence people s sense of guilt induced by the purchase of an hedonistic cause related product.

8 152 I. Baghi et al. 3.1 Method Participants 60 university students (48% percent males; mean age 23 years) participated in Experiment 2. They were tested during class hours and were presented with either the integrated mental accounting or the separated one. Materials and procedure In Experiment 2 participants saw four different hedonic products: a breakfast (composed by coffee and croissant), a ticket for the movie theatre, a music CD, and a pizza. Different products from those used in Experiment 1 have been purposely chosen in order to generalize the effect of the mental accounting format to other hedonic products. Participants were presented with all four products. A manipulation check was also used to assess if those products were actually perceived as hedonic. Instead of the two scales used in Experiment 1, participants were asked to rate how utilitarian and how hedonic they perceived each product (participants provided their answers on 7-point scales ranging from 0, not at all hedonic [utilitarian], to 6, very hedonic [utilitarian] ). To assess people s perception of the product, participants rating of the utilitarian scale was subtracted from the rating on the hedonic scale. All four products should be rated as hedonic rather than utilitarian. Therefore, for all products, a positive score should be found. Again, as in Experiment 1, the price of the products and the amount of money donated to the social cause were presented either as an integrated mental account or as a separated mental account. As in the Experiment 1, there were four different dependent variables. The first one (attractiveness) was the same as in Experiment 1 and was measured using the same 4/+4 scale. The second question asked the participants to rate how good or bad is your feeling toward the social cause supported by the product? on a 7-point scale ranging from 3 ( very bad ) to+3 ( very good ). The third question asked to rate how important or not important do you consider your contribution to the social cause? on a 7-point scale ranging from 3 ( not important at all ) to + 3( very important ). Finally, the fourth questions asked how guilty do you feel to spend your money to purchase this product? on a 7-point scale ranging from 0 ( not guilty at all ) to 6( very guilty ). 3.2 Results As expected, participants perceived all the four products as hedonic rather than utilitarian. In fact, in all cases it was found a positive value when subtracting the rating on the utilitarian scale from the rating on the hedonic scale. In addition, t-test analyses showed that all values are significantly higher than zero: respectively, for the breakfast (M=2.45) t (59)=10.66; p<.01, for the movie theatre ticket (M=1.70) t (59)=6.36; p<.01, for the CD (M=1.77) t (59)=8.14; p<.01, and for the pizza (M=0.77) t (59)= 3.20; p<.01. After showing that the four products were perceived as hedonistic ones, we tested the effect of the mental accounting format on the participants perception of the CRM program. The results supported the hypotheses. As in Experiment 1, participants judged the products more attractive when they were presented using an integrated mental accounting rather than a separated one (for all products p<.01).

9 Mental accounting and cause related marketing strategies 153 In addition, the integrated mental accounting induced the participants to experience a better feeling than the separated mental accounting: respectively, t (58)=5.98; p<.01 for the breakfast, t (58)=3.46; p<.02 for the movie theater ticket, t (58)=4.22; p<.01 for the CD, and t (58)=4.48; p<.01 for the pizza (see Table 3 for the mean ratings). When asked to rate how important was their contribution to the social cause, participants provided a higher rating if the price of the product and the donation to the social cause were integrated in a single value than expressed as separate entities: respectively, t (58) =5.62; p<.01 for the breakfast, t (58) =4.39; p<.01 for the movie theater ticket, t (58)=2,71; p<.01 for the CD, and t (58)=3.65; p<.01 for the pizza. Finally, supporting the explanation based on the reduction of the guilt when the mental accounting is integrated, participants felt more contrition buying an hedonic product when the product-social cause association was presented as two separate costs rather than a single price: respectively, t (58) = 5.63; p<.01 for the breakfast, t (58)= 3.06; p<.01 for the movie theater ticket, t (58)= 4.65; p<.01 for the CD, and t (58)= 4.24; p<.01 for the pizza. 3.3 Discussion Experiment 2 supported our hypotheses and showed that people purchasing an hedonic product experience a lower level of guilty in the integrated mental accounting condition than in the separated mental accounting condition. Furthermore, results show that participants perceive their contribution to the social cause as more important when the mental accounting is integrated rather than separated. These findings suggest that the Table 3 Mean ratings for the affective reactions, importance of the participant s contribution and the feeling of guilt Integrated Mental Accounting Separated Mental Accounting Affective reactions N Mean SD N Mean SD Breakfast CD Movie theater ticket Pizza Importance of the participant s contribution N Mean SD N Mean SD Breakfast CD Movie theater ticket Pizza Feeling of guilt N Mean SD N Mean SD Breakfast CD Movie theater ticket Pizza

10 154 I. Baghi et al. contribution to the social causes is not always perceived in the same way, that is, integrating or separating the donation from the price of a specific cause related product could exert an influence on individuals belief about the importance of their support to social issue. Companies can use the donation formula as a tools available to them to increase people s involvement and contribution to a specific social problem. The present findings shed light on the hypothesis that the mental accounting has a significant impact on consumers perception of a CRM program. The results are also consistent with recent literature on price partitioning suggesting that directing consumers attention toward a secondary attribute may either improve or reduce people s preference for the product (Bertini and Wathieu 2008). In particular, the product looks worse if the secondary attribute is mediocre or if it is simply related to the image of the brand and not to the actual experience people have with the product. 4 General discussion The purpose of the present paper was to show that cause related marketing (CRM) is influenced by the mental accounting format used to present the price of the product and the amount of money donated to the social cause: integrated format (the price of the product and the amount of the donation are expressed as a single value) versus separated format (the price of the product and the amount of the donation are expressed as separate values). Moreover, the paper aimed to show that the mental accounting influence on the perception of cause related marketing programs is mediated by the product typology: hedonistic goods versus utilitarian ones. Experiment 1 showed that the manipulation of the mental accounting format had an effect when people were presented with hedonic products but not when they were presented with utilitarian products. Moreover, when the mental accounting format is separated there is a much smaller difference, if any, between hedonic and utilitarian products supporting a social cause. Therefore, the mental accounting format plays a significant role in shaping the previous findings suggesting that the association between a social cause and a specific brand is more effective when the product is hedonic rather than utilitarian (see Strahilevitz 1999). In other words, this means that to build an effective CRM strategy is not sufficient to choose the right product typology but it is fundamental to take into consideration psychological factors like the mental accounts (Thaler 1985; 1999). Otherwise, even the choice of an hedonic product could lead to a very small increase in the effectiveness of this marketing strategy. Overall, these findings suggest that a CRM strategy that is built giving the proper consideration to psychological factors can not only improve the brand image, and hopefully increase the amount of money raised by the social cause, but also make the purchasing experience more gratifying thanks to a reduction of the sense of guilt felt by the consumers when they are buying an hedonic product. By way of an integrated mental accounting it is possible to communicate the brand social involvement as a core attribute of the product (the donation is embodied into the price) and not as a secondary attribute (the donation is presented as a separated cost) that is not adding anything to the consumer experience with the product. Every company trying to maximize the positive effects of such a marketing strategy, both in terms of corporate image and actual support to the social cause,

11 Mental accounting and cause related marketing strategies 155 should apply it to products that are not perceived as goal oriented and present it using an integrated mental accounting. Such a solution seems to help the consumer to perceive a stronger association between the product and the social cause and to enrich the purchase experience with a social value that is able to soothe the negative emotions, such as the sense of guilt, induced by spending money to buy a frivolous and pleasure oriented product. Not only the purchase experience, but also the perceived social value of the brand can be improved by a cause related marketing program that communicates its social involvement as a core attribute of the product (the donation is embodied into the price) and not as an added and occasional element (the donation is presented as a separated cost). In this perspective, the way in which a separated format detaches the donation from the price of the product could implicitly suggest to the consumers that the cause related campaign is a temporal sort of social promotion and not a real and permanent philanthropic mission of the brand. Otherwise, the integration of the charity into the value of the product may evoke a lasting sense of responsibility or concern for the problems and injustices of the society. However, it is noteworthy that the strategy of communication presented in the present work may lead to undesirable results and negative implications for both the consumers and the companies if applied in the wrong way. On many occasions CRM programs require the consumer to pay a somewhat higher price in order to allow the company to cope with increased costs (e.g., advertising of the campaign or changes to make the product more exclusive). Despite, the potentially good intentions of a CRM strategy, someone might find ethically questionable to use an integrated mental account when the consumer is required to pay more than the regular price since Experiment 1 revealed that people have a more positive perception of the social cause when the donation is integrated into the price of the product. Such a use of the strategy advocated in the present work would lure, somewhat unethically, the consumers toward a more expensive product even though they were not willing to pay the additional cost. On the other hand, a company may make a strategic decision to give up some of its revenues in order to improve its corporate image helping the social cause without asking this contribution to the consumers. In such a case, to use a separated mental accounting could be a way to show the actual amount of money that the company is giving up in favor of the social cause. However, such a strategy is likely to backfire inducing the consumers to think that the donation is collected using their money instead of those of the company. In conclusion, the findings of the present study have important managerial implications. First of all, marketing practitioners must consider that if they want to promote social causes with their products, they need to make strategic decisions carefully. They should taken into account both cognitive factors (e.g., people s way of processing information about the costs of the donation) and emotional ones (e.g., sense of guilt) in order to communicate, effectively, their genuine interest for beneficial social actions. Also in the selection of the product typology, they should consider the emotional factors linked to the purchase experience that induce consumers to comply with a social aim. The chance to donate some money in favor of a social cause is not desirable in itself. Companies should present it together with a good that is hedonistic and not goal oriented. Moreover, in cause-related marketing

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