Abstract

Shahbaz Shabbir*, Hans Ruediger Kaufmann, Israr Ahmad and Imran M. Qureshi

The purpose of this research is to investigate the kind of relationship between Cause Related Marketing (CRM) campaigns, brand awareness and corporate image as possible antecedents of consumer purchase intentions in the less developed country of Pakistan. An initial conceptualization was developed from mainstream literature to be validated through empirical research. The conceptualization was then tested with primary quantitative survey data collected from 203 students studying in different universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Correlation and regression analysis were used to test the key hypothesis derived from literature positing brand awareness and corporate image as mediating the relationship between CRM and consumer purchase intentions. The findings indicate that consumer purchase intentions are influenced by the cause related marketing campaigns. Furthermore it was observed that the brand awareness and corporate image partially mediate the impact of CRM campaigns on consumer purchase intentions. The data was gathered from universities situated in Rawalpindi and Islamabad only. Hence, future research could extend these findings to other cities in Pakistan to test their generalizability. Further research can be carried out through data collection from those people who actually participated in cause related marketing campaigns to identify the original behavior of customers instead of their purchase intentions. This research and the claims made are limited to the FMCG industry. The key implications cause related marketing of these findings for marketing managers lend support for the use of campaigns in Pakistan. The findings also suggest some measures which can be taken in to consideration in order to enhance brand awareness and to improve corporate image as both variables mediate the impact of CRM campaigns on consumer purchase intentions. The study contributes to cause related marketing literature by indicating a mediating role of brand awareness and corporate image on CRM campaigns and consumer purchase intentions. This mediating role was ignored in previous studies. Moreover, it contributes to close the gap of empirical research in this field, which exists particularly due to the diverse attitude of customers in less developed countries such as Pakistan.