Cause marketing

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cause marketing" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Cause marketing is marketing done by a for-profit business that seeks to both increase profits and to better society in accordance with corporate social responsibility, such as by including activist messages in advertising.^[1]

A similar phrase, cause-related marketing, usually refers to a subset of cause marketing that involves the cooperative efforts of a for-profit business and a non-profit organization for mutual benefit. Cause-related marketing refers to the practice in which companies allocate a portion of the revenue generated from product sales to support a specific cause. Consumers who value the cause more highly tend to exhibit a greater willingness to pay for the product. ^[2] A high-profile form of cause-related marketing occurs at checkout counters when customers are asked to support a cause with a charitable donation. Cause marketing differs from corporate giving (philanthropy), as the latter generally involves a specific donation that is tax-deductible, while cause marketing is a promotional campaign not necessarily based on a donation.