With the growth of network technology, cause-related marketing activities have become more diverse, therefore, it is utmost important to understand what kind of cause-related marketing activities consumers like. This study takes perceived benefits as ...
With the growth of network technology, cause-related marketing activities have become more diverse, therefore, it is utmost important to understand what kind of cause-related marketing activities consumers like. This study takes perceived benefits as independent variables, examines the impact of perceived benefits on consumer participation. It also investigates the mediating role of consumer attitudes and the moderating role of privacy concerns.
Through the questionnaire survey, a total of 535 questionnaires have been collected in this study. After removing 18 invalid questionnaires, 517 questionnaires have finally been used for analysis. According to whether consumers have participated in online public welfare marketing activities, the questionnaire has been divided into experienced groups (N = 267) and inexperienced groups (N = 250).
The results of this study are summarized below. For those who have in internet cause-related marketing activities,, the three types of perceived benefits (functional benefits, experiential benefits, symbolic benefits) can positively affect consumers’ attitudes towards the activities, then positively affect their participation. In addition, privacy concerns have a significant negative moderating effect on the impact of functional benefits on attitudes. However, in the impact of symbolic benefits on attitudes, privacy concerns have a significant positive moderating effect.
For people who have not participated in internet cause-related marketing activities, only perceived symbolic benefits and experiential benefits can influence their attitudes towards activities positively, then positively affect their participation intention. In the impact of symbolic interests on attitudes, privacy concerns have been found to have a positive moderating effect.
Besides, compared with inexperienced consumers, experienced consumers have higher perceived benefits, lower privacy concerns, the amount of donations in donation activities as well as the amount of time in volunteer services is relatively small.
The theoretical significance of this study is as follows. Firstly, factors that influence consumer participation in internet cause-related marketing activities, have been studied and related research on cause-related marketing has been enriched in this study. Secondly, cause-related marketing and cause marketing was distinguished, based on whether it can create economic value, which is of great significance to the research on CSV (Creating Shared Value). Last but not least, the role of privacy concerns in internet cause-related marketing activities has been explored in this study.
The practical significance of this research is as follows. First, companies can effectively promote consumers’ participation by satisfying their functional, experiential, symbolic needs. Second, when collecting personal information of consumers, companies should pay attention to the issue of information leakage and improve consumer trust.
Here are the limitations of this study. Firstly, the relationship between privacy concerns and perceived benefits is not clear enough; hence further research will be needed. Secondly, the questionnaire of this study has been implemented for Chinese consumers, so there are some shortcomings in the generality of the results.