Fattori emotivi e cognitivi nella percezione delle iniziative di cause related marketing

Cause related marketing is a strategy that aims to communicate a company's striving for corporate social responsibility and to improve brand image. Previous studies showed that psychological an cognitive factors have a central role in the cause related marketing strategy as they influence the extent of people's emotional reactions toward the product-social cause link. Cause related marketing has been found to be more effective and trustable when the social cause is supported by a hedonic product because the donation is able to soothe the sense of guilt for the purchase of a frivolous good. The present study suggest that one of the factors involved in cause related marketing is mental accounting. A way to show the product-donation price is by providing people with the product price and the amount of the donation separately (separated mental accounting). On the other hand, people could be provided with a single price including the amount donated to the social cause (e.g., 5% of the price; integrated mental accounting). We hypothesize that mental accounting should have an impact on people’s perception of a cause related marketing program. The effect of mental accounting should be different when comparing frivolous and utilitarian products.