Experiential design on cause-related marketing: lessons from the fill-the-bottle challenge

Purpose Based on a “Fill-the-Bottle” (FTB) challenge, this research explores how experiential design can help cause-related marketing. This study aims to show that experiences designed as anti-structural and anti-functional can raise awareness through action. Design/methodology/approach The authors study a corpus of 52 introspective journals and 60 pictures about the challenge, which entails filling empty bottles with cigarette butts from the streets as quickly as possible, then sharing pictures of the bottles on social media. Findings The anti-structural design of the experience activates the participants’ experiential system, and the social interactions between the participants and pedestrians construct meaning for the experience. The results further indicate that as follows: individuals’ frames of reference can explain whether they perceive the experience as liberatory or stochastic; anti-structural design can serve cause-related marketing by focusing on three stages: doing, showing and sharing; and experiential marketing can serve societal and social causes. Research limitations/implications This research involved a single field. Further research with more heterogeneous participants would be insightful. The power of experiential marketing to serve meaningful and collective causes should be encouraged. Further research should be conducted to understand and conceptualize these collective attempts to fight the dark sides of consumption. Practical implications In line with Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) advice to stage memorable experiences by working cautiously on cues, the FTB challenge analysis indicates that by focusing on material evidence and staging a specific sequence of doing something about it, showing everyone what is being done and expanding visibility by sharing artifacts of the action on social media, one can actually make people think about and remember the action. Social implications The “do-show-share” design that the FTB challenge uses can be relevant for many cause-related marketing efforts because it operates on both individual and collective levels. Originality/value This research offers a new perspective on experiential marketing by studying how experiences designed to be anti-structural can renew social, cause-related marketing tools.

Women Lawyers for Social Causes: Professional Careers and Legal Development in Thailand

Women lawyers are increasing seen among the leading legal defenders of human rights and social movements in Thailand. Increasing visibility is partly a result of news coverage and social media, but women lawyers activism has far older roots. In this article, we examine two related processes of change that contribute to women’s emergence as leading social cause practitioners. First, we discuss the relationship between Thailand’s legal system and its social and political development since the end of the nineteenth century. Second, we employ career narratives of three women lawyers with innovative practices for social causes as a lens through which to examine how lawyers transform available resources into an identity, law practice, and law. We discuss not only the role of prior generations of women lawyers, connections between influential elites and social cause lawyers, and the founding of a few key organizations within the NGO community, but also the role of the women as architects of their own careers. We conclude that they have become successful by aligning their practices with emerging social movements and progressive bureaucrats, unexpectedly creating professional identities with somewhat different relationships to the rule of law.

The Nexus of Social Cause Interest and Entrepreneurial Mindset: Driving Socioeconomic Sustainability

The importance of entrepreneurial activity as a driver of sustainable economic growth is well established. Interest in social enterprises as a means to fill gaps that exist in society is growing. With the emerging concept of social entrepreneurship in China, this paper aims to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial mindset, individual intention to start an enterprise, the likelihood of actually starting a business and personal interest in social causes. Theoretical models in the field of entrepreneurship study indicate that personal entrepreneurial desire is a strong factor in predicting future business behaviour but there is little in the existing research about entrepreneurial mindset as a predictor of actual activity. Considering entrepreneurship and psychological research and theory, four main psychological entrepreneur traits including chance alertness, risk tendency, tolerance of vagueness and intentional optimism are considered to measure the aptitude towards starting a business. Based on the results of 590 online surveys, the role of entrepreneurial mindset as a predictor is analysed using Correlation, Linear Regression and Multiple Regression Analysis. The findings of this research indicate that social cause interest is unlikely to drive entrepreneurial activity in the absence of structured intervention. The findings contribute to the future development of social entrepreneurial programs, and to the role and assessment of the entrepreneurial mindset of potential social entrepreneurs. The study also provides insight into the perspective of the individual towards the concept of social responsibility.

Collaborative capabilities of cause-based social entrepreneurship alliance of firms

PurposeThis study examines the collaborative value practices of cause-based social entrepreneurship alliances. We investigate key drivers of value creation in such alliances.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes a longitudinal case study design approach involving four northern Italian businesses for investigating the cause-based social alliances.FindingsThe study findings suggest that cause-based alliance differ from other business relationships due to social mission of the alliance and orientation of partners to a specific social cause. However, over time involved firm may pursue commercial interests.Research limitations/implicationsThe study utilizes a qualitative case study approach to examine the issues. This may have implications on generalizability of study findings. Further, the sample is limited to small firms, which limit its relevance for large firms.Practical implicationsManagers can utilize the study findings to guide the organizing process of a successful cause-based alliance and can implement it with positive outcomes for their firm.Originality/valueThis is one of the first study on the emerging phenomenon of cause-based social alliance. It contributes to the literature on social entrepreneurship. It informs and guides practitioners about motivations and drivers of such alliances.

The Role of Cause Involvement and Assortment Size on Decision Difficulty via Communal Relationships

Social enterprises aim to achieve both social and economic goals by reaching broader consumer segments through extensive assortments, but research into how this product proliferation strategy affects consumer response is scarce. In the current research we examine how consumers judge social enterprises providing large product assortments. Three experiments show that choice overload (i.e., having a decision difficulty when faced with many options) can be reversed among target consumers of social enterprises—specifically those whose involvement in a social cause is high. Because more-involved consumers view large assortments of cause-related products as an indicator of the company’s commitment to addressing social issues, they identify with the company and thereby form communal relationships. Thus, the consumers’ focus shifts from comparing options to helping the company, leading to reduced decision difficulty. The findings contribute to existing research on assortment size and the understanding of the information consumers use to evaluate the company’s commitment to social causes.

The effects of donation amount and ad orientation of cause-related marketing on consumers’ response

Purpose Cause-related marketing (CRM) is an increasing popular marketing strategy in which a firm donates a specific amount to a designed cause when customers engage in revenue-providing exchanges. Based on balance and attribution theory, this paper aims to explore the interaction effect of donation amount and ad orientation, two important factors of formulation and communication of CRM, respectively, on consumer response and the mediating effect of consumers’ perceived company motives. Design/methodology/approach Two 2 (donation amount: small vs large) × 2 (ad orientation: product- vs cause-oriented) between-subjects experimental studies were conducted in marketing course with 284 and 157 Chinese undergraduate students participating in Studies 1 and 2, respectively. ANOVA and regression were used to test the hypotheses. Findings Study 1 shows the significant interaction effects of donation amount and ad orientation on consumers’ response. When CRM has a large donation amount, cause-oriented (vs product-oriented) ad leads to consumers’ more positive company attitude and higher purchase intention. The opposite is true for the small donation amount condition. Study 2 shows that the above interaction effect is mediated by consumer-attributed company motives. The attributed motive of sincerely caring about social cause has significant positive effect on consumer response, whereas the attributed motive of increasing sales or improving corporate image does not. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by empirically examining the interaction effect of donation amount and ad orientation on consumer-inferred motives and behavioral response. The findings are valuable because they indicate the importance of matching between factors at formulation and communication stage. In addition, this paper found that consumers are “tolerant” of companies using CRM to promote product sales and improve brand image.

Research on Path Dependence of Industrial Clusters: Taking Xuchang Tobacco Industrial Cluster as an Example

As the major carriers for the development of the regional economy and small-and-medium-sized enterprises, industry clusters are faced with challenges of sustainable development in the process of China's industrial upgrading and transformation. This study takes the development history of China's Xuchang tobacco industry cluster as the background, extracts some key concepts from Path-Dependence Theory and then constructs the relational model of path dependence elements, hoping to find out the formation mechanism of path dependence. The study shows that, firstly, learning costs, transaction costs, transformation costs and innovation risks determine what decisions to be taken for those enterprises in the clusters, and they are also the internal economic factors for formation of path-dependence. Secondly, the competence of an enterprise is the main reason accounting for the path dependence of the cluster. Lastly, habit seem to be the social cause and the highlight of the path dependence. Moreover, those path dependence elements are interactive and reciprocally enhanced.

A Study on Advertisement and Efficiency in Indian Advertisement Industries

Advertising could be a powerful communication force and important selling tool serving to to sell goods, services, images, and ideas through channel of knowledge and persuasion. It is highly visible force within the society. All people receive several advertising messages daily. It is essential to the success of any sort of business and business. Non-business organization like government, school and universities, and Public Service teams employ a lot of and a lot of advertising ways. It’s one of the elements of the selling and communication method. Advertising win over folks to shop for merchandise. All advertising contains each info and persuasion. Nowadays we are able to say advertising could be a communication, marketing, public-relation, info and persuasion method. This study is to look at however a client connects with promotional techniques utilized by advertising business in India. The advertising business in India is dynamic at a really quick pace. The promotional techniques that square measure currently being employed by the businesses is that specialize in a social cause and mistreatment folk as their whole representatives instead of mistreatment celebrity faces. Television, typically known as “king” of the advertising media has been perpetually facing challenges from not solely the digital medium, however conjointly from the web ads and social networking sites .In alternative words we are able to say that it’s a complete psychological treatment of the buyer and a really artistic and exciting area also.

A Study on Advertisement and Efficiency in Indian Advertisement Industries

Advertising could be a powerful communication force and important selling tool serving to to sell goods, services, images, and ideas through channel of knowledge and persuasion. It is highly visible force within the society. All people receive several advertising messages daily. It is essential to the success of any sort of business and business. Non-business organization like government, school and universities, and Public Service teams employ a lot of and a lot of advertising ways. It’s one of the elements of the selling and communication method. Advertising win over folks to shop for merchandise. All advertising contains each info and persuasion. Nowadays we are able to say advertising could be a communication, marketing, public-relation, info and persuasion method. This study is to look at however a client connects with promotional techniques utilized by advertising business in India. The advertising business in India is dynamic at a really quick pace. The promotional techniques that square measure currently being employed by the businesses is that specialize in a social cause and mistreatment folk as their whole representatives instead of mistreatment celebrity faces. Television, typically known as “king” of the advertising media has been perpetually facing challenges from not solely the digital medium, however conjointly from the web ads and social networking sites .In alternative words we are able to say that it's a complete psychological treatment of the buyer and a really artistic and exciting area also.