How Social-Cause Marketing Affects Consumer Perceptions Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Case studies show that companies, including Avon, Stonyfield Farm, and Starbucks, have benefited from the company's marketing initiatives to communicate socially beneficial cause.

But as managers allocate dollars between social cause marketing and other marketing programs? The authors use a market research technique called "joint analysis" to help managers evaluate the relative benefits of different types of affinity marketing programs, including sponsorship of social causes, sports, or entertainment. Joint analysis involves creating different hypothetical profiles of brands that contain combinations of brand attributes, asking consumers to evaluate the profiles, the researchers can get an idea of how different brand attributes affect consumer preferences. Some products studied, due to social reasons had more positive effects on consumer rating than joining a sporting or entertainment events. However, this was not always the case, for example, this was not the case with milk brands studied, suggesting that the influence of social and cause marketing initiatives can vary depending on the industry. It also discusses how brand managers can use a joint analysis to compare potential marketing initiatives. "Hide
by Paul N. Bloom, Steve Hoeffler, Kevin Lane Keller, E. Hymns Basurto Meza Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 9 pages. Publication Date: January 1, 2006. Prod. #: SMR194-PDF-ENG