Effect of Cause-Related Marketing and Brand on Consumer Purchase Intention: Mediating Role of Emotions

Abstract

Cause-related marketing is one of the corporate social responsibility strategies that helps build corporate reputation, brand, and image. To understand the influencing factors before purchase actions in cause-related marketing, this study investigates whether consumers’ purchase intention is affected by brand and personal emotions. The “questionnaire survey method” was adopted for data collection, with a total of 379 valid samples retrieved for hypothesis testing. The partial least squares (PLS) analysis tool was used for verification. The results indicate that cause-related marketing activities have a positive impact on brand impression, and brands influence purchase intention. Additionally, emotions play a mediating role between cause-related marketing activities and purchase intention. This research contributes to understanding the relationship between cause-related marketing, brands, and purchase intention. This research also contributes to understanding the corporate comprehension of cause-related marketing strategies and provides reference for sustainable development research.

1. Introduction

Faced with an increasing number of sustainability-related issues, businesses are required not only to demonstrate their capacity for sustainable development but also to establish a positive corporate image and reputation. A positive reputation helps businesses achieve both financial and social success, gain a competitive edge, and differentiate themselves from competitors. Cause-related marketing is a crucial strategy for building a favorable corporate reputation, brand, image, and identity [1]. Cause-related marketing refers to the monetary or product donations made by companies to nonprofit organizations or community groups. In the marketing process, companies align product sales with commitments to donate to nonprofit causes, thereby encouraging consumer purchases [2,3,4]. Effective cause-related marketing activities are widely regarded as being closely associated with a company’s brand value, brand image, and sales performance [3,5,6]. They also influence consumers’ purchase intentions and can enhance market positioning [7,8]. In this regard, cause-related marketing activities can be seen as a strategic tool that connects product sales with support for social causes. However, not all cause-related marketing activities can effectively influence consumer decision-making [9]. Therefore, this gap constituted the research motivation of the present study, which aimed to explore the factors influencing consumers’ purchase intentions in cause-related marketing activities and to examine whether these activities lead to the outcomes anticipated by marketers.

Cause-related marketing strategies, which link product sales with nonprofit organizations supported by cause-related marketing, are regarded as strategic tools for enhancing brand image and increasing sales volume. These strategies play a crucial role in influencing consumer choices [3,5,10,11]. Cause-related alliances contribute to creating brand associations and emotions for companies, improving brand image by fostering brand meaning and differentiation. This is driven by consumers’ positive stereotypes of nonprofit organizations and their positive perceptions of corporate competence, which enhance intrinsic admiration and ultimately lead to purchase intention [12,13]. In the retail market, the expanding effectiveness of cause-related marketing highlights a shift in branding strategies, with such strategies becoming prerequisites for shaping corporate image [11]. With companies increasingly adopting cause-related marketing to achieve business success, building brand equity has become a key objective of marketing activities. Cause-related marketing is an effective method for developing brand associations. When the alignment between the cause and the brand is strong, consumers exhibit more favorable attitudes toward cause-related marketing activities than toward sponsorships or promotional campaigns, leading to improved brand attitudes [14]. When a good fit exists between the product and the cause, consumer identification with the cause-related brand and their evaluation of the product are substantially influenced. This alignment helps companies strengthen brand associations, facilitating the expansion of existing associations and establishing brand differentiation [15].

In consumer behavior models, individuals do not always adopt a rational thinking mode because numerous uncontrollable internal factors influence consumption decisions [16]. Among these factors, emotions play a crucial role in influencing how consumers think and respond, helping to explain non-deliberate human behaviors [16,17,18,19]. Emotions are influential, universal, and predictable drivers of decision-making, which can be sometimes harmful and sometimes beneficial. Emotions influence judgment and choice across various types of decisions [20]. For example, actual feelings of happiness, sadness, and anger affect our decisions, and these emotions have strong effects on decisions [21]. Emotional research is generally categorized into positive and negative types for investigation [16,22,23,24,25]. Researchers have found that people’s positive or negative emotions influence the evaluation of target products during purchase decisions [23]. In studies related to environmentally friendly behavior, positive and negative emotions significantly predicted engagement in pro-environmental actions and were identified as factors influencing behavioral intentions [26,27]. In addition to being predictors of environmental protection behaviors, these two types of emotions (positive and negative) may act as mediating variables for other predictive factors [24].

Past research on the effects of cause-related marketing has been extensive, typically linking cause-related marketing activities to consumer values, brand awareness, enhanced brand image, improved corporate image, and the establishment of brand loyalty. A persistent issue in cause-related marketing is how to achieve the marketing effects sought by marketers [5,28,29,30,31,32]. A crucial focus in cause-related marketing is eliciting consumer resonance [11]. The aforementioned studies have indicated that emotions play a crucial role in consumers’ evaluations and choices, serving as crucial influencing factors in decision-making [20,21,26,27]. Furthermore, positive and negative emotions have significant effects on consumers’ intention to purchase environmentally friendly products [33]. The brand effects of cause-related marketing require the collaboration of various other conditions [6,8,28,34,35,36,37]. Although the importance of emotions in the consumer decision-making process is acknowledged, whether emotions still play a mediating role in cause-related marketing activities and whether the brand effects of cause-related marketing remain effective under emotional influence are issues worth exploring. This study focused on consumer-specific factors, examining whether consumer perceptions of cause-related marketing advertisements are influenced by cause-related brands and emotions. The research framework of the present study draws on emotional mediation arrangements discussed by Koenig-Lewis et al. [16] and the emotional concepts proposed by Ou and Verhoef [19], and relevant aspects were modified for the study of promotional advertisements in cause-related marketing activities. Finally, the present study contributes to the understanding of the factors that influence consumers’ judgments of cause-related marketing activities, aiming to enhance marketing effectiveness

2. Theoretical Background

2.1. Cause-Related Marketing and Sustainable Consumption

Cause-related marketing is an integral part of corporate social responsibility, which relates to various social and environmental initiatives that help enterprises gain legitimacy and goodwill from external stakeholders. A company’s corporate social responsibility measures are positively correlated with its green reputation [38]. Taking the tourism industry as an example, corporate philanthropic behavior is the most effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy for enhancing reputation and competitiveness, wherein the form of corporate donations plays a significant role in consumers’ emotional responses and behavioral intentions [39]. This type of donation-based cause-related marketing campaign is not limited to short-term sales effects. Through some well-designed activity strategies, managers can quickly reach a large audience without investing heavily in traditional advertising. This approach is beneficial for enhancing long-term goals such as brand attitude, brand trust, brand engagement, and purchase intention [40]. Cause-related marketing can become a meaningful part of a company’s marketing plan primarily because it substantially affects consumer choice behavior. Companies engaged in cause-related marketing tend to achieve a larger market share compared with those not engaged in any such initiatives [6,41]. Traditional public welfare activities refer to companies donating a portion of their sales/revenue to a charitable organization [42].

Typically, cause-related marketing strategies involve a company’s commitment to donate money to a social cause when customers purchase its products or services [43]. Therefore, customers must first make a purchase to trigger cause-related marketing; that is, the company’s donation of money or products to nonprofit organizations or community groups [5,6]. For example, Patagonia donates 1% of its outdoor apparel and merchandise sales to sustainability initiatives. Newman’s Own, a natural food company, contributes its profits to charitable organizations [42]. These activities serve two primary purposes: first, they raise awareness and support for public welfare organizations (e.g., global hunger relief) to help them obtain donations and achieve social causes; second, they enhance corporate reputation and customer loyalty, thereby generating financial benefits for the company [2].

Cause-related marketing can connect product sales with supported social organizations but is not always effective. For example, factors such as the beneficiary origin of cause-related marketing activities and brand type can influence consumer decision-making [9]. One study reported that a sample of Indian students perceived cause-related marketing activities as more creative than existing Indian advertisements, and their positive evaluation of cause-related marketing activities translated into higher evaluations of sponsoring companies and increased purchase intentions. Indian advertisers have found that cause-related marketing strategies can be employed for promotional purposes to achieve short-term success and establish a foundation for long-term improvements in corporate image [44]. Another study explored the sale of online insurance products and found that although linking cause-related marketing with charitable donations increased purchase intentions, the effect was statistically nonsignificant. Therefore, companies should analyze their target audience before engaging in cause-related marketing activities. This is because product involvement significantly affects purchase intentions. Moreover, providing individuals with the opportunity to choose nonprofit organizations, compared with not providing such choice, paradoxically reduces purchase intentions [45]. Accordingly, the effect of cause-related marketing on marketing effectiveness is neither direct nor immediate. Minton and Cornwell [36] found that the type of cause did not significantly affect purchase intentions or overall attitudes. However, linking the type of cause with the sold product made it easier to influence consumers’ product choices. For example, adding health-related cause prompts to food packaging increased people’s awareness of food and health, drawing more attention to the food processing process and enabling consumers to evaluate the healthiness of the food. Yang and Li [37] compared the effects of various cause-related marketing strategies on marketing effectiveness. Their study used two cause-related marketing approaches: The first involved a “buy a pair of shoes, donate a portion of money” strategy, such as Sporty Company’s campaign, where 5% of every shoe sale was donated to athletes or the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation (O.I. Foundation). The second approach involved direct sponsorship (i.e., providing large sums of money), such as Sporty Company’s decision to donate USD 10,000,000 to the O.I. Foundation during a marketing campaign. These two cause-related marketing strategies had no significant effect on corporate image. However, in terms of purchase intentions, the first approach resulted in significantly higher purchase intentions relative to the second approach. This suggests that consumers prefer cause-related marketing activities involving a direct connection to their purchasing behavior.

Category of cause also influences consumer perception. When brand familiarity and the importance of the cause are extremely high (or low), health-related causes and those serving humanity have a greater influence. However, for brand attitude and purchase intention, no differences exist between cause categories [28]. The nature of promotional products used in cause-related marketing activities influences brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Specifically, under a given set of cause conditions, hedonic products generate more favorable brand attitudes compared with utilitarian products, whereas cause-related marketing activities associated with utilitarian products result in higher purchase intentions [35]. In summary, the outcomes of cause-related marketing activities are variable. The focus lies in whether they can influence consumers’ brand attitudes and trigger subsequent purchasing behavior. Clarifying the process by which cause-related marketing affects consumer behavioral intentions, as well as the intermediary influencing factors, is crucial for the overall effectiveness of marketing efforts.

2.2. Brand Benefits of Cause-Related Marketing Activities

From a brand perspective to examine the effects of cause-related marketing, Keller’s brand equity framework provides a useful theoretical foundation for studying the connection between brands and consumer responses. When consumers conceptualize brand knowledge as associations in their minds, these associations vary based on favorability (positive evaluations), strength (closeness to the brand), and uniqueness (exclusive to a specific brand within the product category). Brand equity increases when consumers become familiar with the brand and retain favorable, strong, and unique brand associations in their memory [46]. The brand equity framework encompasses brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, brand loyalty, and other proprietary brand assets [47]. Brand association relates to brand characteristic attributes, benefits, and consumer attitudes [46], which can drive consumer responses and brand equity. Consumers with high brand association congruence demonstrate more positive brand responses [48]. From the perspective of branding, the effects of cause-related marketing are encapsulated within the brand equity framework, which includes brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, brand loyalty, and other proprietary brand assets [47]. Within this framework, brand associations are related to brand attributes, benefits, and consumer attitudes [46]. Through various brand messages, consumers perceive brand identity, store brand associations in their memory, and form personal impressions (brand image) [49,50]. That is, brand association reflects consumers’ perceptions of a brand based on their memories of it [46,51]. These associations help consumers acquire and process information, differentiate and position products, establish brand attitudes, form purchase motives, and drive brand performance [46,47,52,53,54,55]. This relationship highlights the emotional resonance between the brand and consumers, which helps enhance young consumers’ affinity for the brand [56].

A topic that warrants exploration is how cause-related marketing creates a link with brands. Mora et al. [57] employed associative learning theory and integration theory as theoretical foundations for improving consumer brand attitudes through cause-related marketing activities. When people perceive that a company is providing valuable assistance to a supported nonprofit organization (a cause), they develop a more favorable overall impression of the brand. First, the associative learning theory aims to build an associative link between the brand and cause. When both the brand and the cause receive positive attention, consumers’ attitudes toward both improve. By contrast, integration theory posits that when new information is disseminated through cause-related marketing advertisements, consumers develop new attitudes toward and form separate impressions of the brand and the cause. These separate impressions are then integrated with prior attitudes. Cause-related marketing further disseminates new information to consumers through advertisements, shaping new attitudes toward the alliance and distinct impressions of both entities. Kull and Heath [58] argued that when consumers have the right to choose, their attachment to the cause-related brand and their attitude toward the brand are strengthened, ultimately extending to purchase intentions. However, if the brand has a negative image, giving consumers more choice regarding the cause does not improve brand effectiveness and may even backfire. Patel et al. [59] agreed that cause-related marketing activities possess social appeal and that cause-related advertisements are more influenced than regular advertisements are, leading consumers to engage more actively with cause-related marketing or exhibit higher cognitive elaboration regarding the product.

We confirmed that cause-related marketing activities are closely related to consumer purchasing behavior; however, their effectiveness does not directly translate into purchase intentions [36,45]. When consumers develop trust in a brand that applies cause-related marketing, their intention to subsequently share the brand (on social media) also increases [60]. Although cause-related marketing does not directly affect purchase intentions, it influences the cause and brand attitude, and brand impressions can extend to purchase intentions [36,57]. This process amplifies the influence through the association between the brand and the cause [6]. That is, during the process of attitude formation, new attitude associations are generated through the link between the cause and the brand, ultimately extending to purchase intentions [12,13,57,58]. Given the influence of cause-related marketing and brand on consumer attitudes, and the role of advertisements in cause-related marketing strategies within the overall marketing process, we believe the cause-related marketing does not necessarily affect consumers’ purchasing attitudes. However, people might react to the company and its brand through advertisements in cause-related marketing activities. Accordingly, we propose the following hypotheses:

H1. 

Cause-related marketing campaigns have no positive impact on consumers’ purchase intentions.

H2. 

Cause-related marketing activities have a positive impact on brand perception.

H3. 

Consumer brand perception has a positive impact on purchase intention.

2.3. Effects of Cause-Related Marketing and Emotions

The effects of cause-related marketing activities may not be consistent across all consumers because various individual factors must also be considered [9,61,62]. Emotions considerably influence individuals’ responses to information [63]. Emotion is a state of mental preparation arising from one’s evaluation of an event or one’s own thoughts. Emotions have an important influence on cognitive processes, helping with volition, goal-directed behavior, and decision making [64]. Because of their complexity, emotions are difficult to classify and define. They are inherently physiological responses involving tendencies that influence specific thoughts and behaviors. These states generally last for a limited duration, ranging from minutes to hours, and are reactions to specific circumstances [16]. Marketing practitioners regard emotions as a key aspect of persuasive behavior in consumer purchasing contexts [65]. Emotions are also predictors of advertising effectiveness because consumers’ emotional responses can be measured to effectively evaluate how advertisements affect consumer attitudes, behaviors, and recall [63,66]. In terms of emotional impact, people tend to take positive emotional actions that trigger excitement, confidence, and pride, and avoid negative emotional actions that lead to anger, guilt, and frustration [22]. For example, consumers with positive emotions are more likely to develop favorable product attitudes and evaluations when interacting with a smiling salesperson. When consumers see a smiling salesperson, those with negative emotions may experience a decline in their evaluation of the product being promoted [67]. When shopping online, consumers often review customer feedback, where the emotional content in the review’s influences purchasing decisions both consciously and unconsciously. Positive reviews are typically interpreted as a reflection of product acceptance and high quality. Positive online shopping reviews, compared with negative reviews, can increase purchase likelihood [68]. Live streaming is another shopping method that reflects this phenomenon; when consumers find the background visual complexity of the live stream to be pleasing, exciting, and aligned with their needs, they experience stimulation toward the displayed products. The more happiness and excitement consumers derive from the live stream, the greater is their tendency to make purchases [69].

Emotions manifest in various ways in marketing research. Positive emotions positively influence purchase intentions and revisit intentions; this is because consumers’ perceptions of service scenarios directly affect their emotions, which in turn indirectly influence their behavioral intentions [70]. For example, in food-related research, positive emotions elicited by direct exposure to real food significantly enhanced consumers’ purchase intentions [71]. The nature of the product itself may be a crucial factor influencing how emotions affect consumer satisfaction. When consumers experience pleasant emotions, high-involvement products, compared with low-involvement products, have a greater effect on consumer satisfaction. That is, the pleasant emotions generated during consumption have a stronger influence on satisfaction with low-involvement products [72]. When comparing the effects of positive and negative emotions on marketing performance, positive emotions is a better predictor of consumer behavior and significantly increases consumers’ purchase intentions [73]. However, several studies have suggested that negative emotions can also trigger purchase intentions. For example, Zhou, et al. [74] used the facial expressions of individuals in poverty alleviation product advertisements as emotional triggers to predict purchase intentions through the mediation of guilt. When poverty alleviation advertisements evoked negative emotions, consumers were more likely to feel guilt, which in turn increased their purchase intentions. Jin et al. [75] explored social issues related to food safety, discovering that when consumers felt confused about food safety issues, it intensified anger and anxiety (negative emotions). Furthermore, negative emotions are positively associated with moral purchase intentions; consumers with more negative emotions have demonstrated higher moral purchase intentions. Cheng et al. [76] employed flow theory and the illusion of control theory to construct a model of the relationship between emotions and user intentions. Their results indicated that users experienced negative emotions while using short video platforms, which influenced their intention to continue using the platforms.

Scholars have largely agreed that positive emotions elicit favorable consumer responses, whereas findings regarding the effects of negative emotions are notably inconsistent. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand the roles of emotions and brands in cause-related marketing activities. Koenig-Lewis et al. [16] explored the effect of eco-friendly packaging on purchase intentions and concluded that under eco-friendly packaging conditions, the influence of positive emotions on purchase intentions is greater than that of negative emotions. This is because positive emotions, such as pride and optimism, tend to dominate consumer evaluations and thereby induce inner peace. Guerreiro et al. [77] argued that emotional arousal and attention significantly influence the marketing effectiveness of cause-related products. Marketing activities should enhance consumer attention and promote a pleasant shopping experience. Packaging designs that attract consumer attention, evoke pleasure, or stimulate arousal can improve the marketing effectiveness of cause-related products. Bigné et al. [60] conducted a study using negative user-generated content (UGC) and found that negative emotional responses were stronger than positive emotional responses in cause-related marketing. When user-generated content shared online includes warnings discouraging others from using specific products or services, it may evoke sadness and contempt among consumers. Such negative posts about specific brands and their association with cause-related marketing reduce consumers’ visual attention, subsequently affecting brand trust and sharing intentions. Thus, we propose the following hypotheses:

H4. 

Positive emotions have a positive effect on purchase intentions for cause-related marketing products.

H5. 

Negative emotions have a negative effect on purchase intentions for cause-related marketing products.

In cause-related marketing research, moral emotions significantly influence participants’ intention to purchase socially beneficial products. People use their current positive or negative emotions as a basis for judging target items (e.g., products), with positive emotions leading participants to evaluate target products more favorably [78]. After corporate social responsibility actions, consumers actively participate in the company’s brand activities and spread good word of mouth with an attitude of rewarding others [79]. From the perspective of the relationship between emotions and cause-related marketing in branding, Pelsmaeker et al. [80] explored children’s milk brands and identified a close connection between flavored milk brands and emotions. Their study revealed that well-known brands evoke more positive emotions, with the emotions being most associated with the positive aspects of brands, such as enthusiasm, enjoyment, and pleasure. Only one negative emotion, boredom, was chosen by children to express their feelings about the brand. Romani et al. [81] argued that negative emotions play a significant role in the relationship between consumers and brands. Specific negative emotions influence brand-related behavioral outcomes in various ways. When consumers encounter brands that evoke negative emotions, their subsequent shopping behaviors become more cautious. Additionally, the behavioral responses triggered by various negative emotions can vary. For example, worry may cause consumers to switch to other brands, whereas anger may provoke complaints about a brand. In situations involving feelings of dislike, consumers tend to engage in behaviors such as complaining, spreading negative word-of-mouth, and switching to other brands. That is, when a brand elicits negative emotions in consumers, it can predict subsequent behaviors such as switching to other brands, complaints, and negative word-of-mouth.

The above shows that in cause-related marketing activities, whether through packaging or advertising, marketing effectiveness can be enhanced if consumers’ attention is captured and their positive emotions are elicited [16,77,80]. Conversely, a bad experience with a product (or service) can lead to regret and decreased satisfaction among users, resulting in them switching to a different product or service [60,81]. This study primarily explored whether the brand and emotional responses in cause-related marketing exhibit marketing effects similar to those of other products. Accordingly, we propose the following hypotheses:

H6a. 

Consumers’ support for cause-related marketing activities positively influences positive emotions.

H6b. 

Consumers’ support for cause-related marketing activities negatively influences negative emotions.

H7a. 

Brand perceptions in cause-related marketing activities positively influence positive emotions.

H7b. 

Brand perceptions in cause-related marketing activities negatively influence negative emotions.

The influence of emotions on behavioral intentions is widely recognized by scholars, with emotions acting as mediating variables for behavioral intentions and indirectly influencing subsequent consumer behaviors [70,73,82]. Emotions mediate the relationship between attitudes and behaviors, creating a link that connects attitudes with satisfaction and emotions, a connection strongly supported in psychological literature [83]. Positive emotions play a mediating role in the effect of perceived authenticity on purchase intentions. Under the framework of cognitive appraisal theory, the genuine experiences consumers have in traditional restaurants shape these restaurants’ image, and the positive emotions that are generated significantly enhance purchase intentions [73]. Warm, humorous, happy, and positive advertisements mediate the relationship between customer style inventory (CSI) and purchase intentions. This occurs because consumers react to emotion-evoking advertisements, forming attitudes that influence their decision-making styles and purchase intentions [84]. In the context of comprehensive evaluations of restaurant quality, research has indicated that when emotions mediate behavioral intentions, a favorable restaurant atmosphere and high-quality service lead to beneficial behavioral outcomes through positive emotions. However, high-quality product attributes alone fail to elicit positive emotions. Conversely, poor product quality leads to the deterioration of consumers’ emotions [82]. In the context of tourism product consumption and services, the quality of the relationship between consumers and online travel agencies positively affects repurchase intentions. However, consumers’ negative emotions diminish the quality of their relationships with travel agencies. Negative emotions weaken the relationships between consumers and tourism suppliers or online travel agencies [85]. In the case of environmental protection emotions, emotions serve as fundamental components of motivation and as mediators of predictive variables. Both positive and negative emotions can act as predictors of protective behaviors [24]. Positive moral emotions (e.g., awe, gratitude, and elevation) and attitudes mediate the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions and brand advocacy. In response to CSR actions, consumers experience the impulse to reward “good” companies, express gratitude to socially responsible firms, spread positive word-of-mouth, and actively engage in various brand advocacy behaviors [79]. Under this concept, we propose the following hypotheses, while referencing Koenig-Lewis et al. [16] regarding the mediating pathway of emotions in cognition and behavioral intentions, to establish the following research framework (Figure 1).

H8a. 

Positive emotions mediate the relationship between cause-related marketing activities and purchase intentions.

H8b. 

Negative emotions mediate the relationship between cause-related marketing activities and purchase intentions.

3. Methods

3.1. Sample and Research Design

In the present study, data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Convenience sampling was conducted to enroll students from a university in Fujian, China, as the sample population. Data collection spanned four weeks, during which 560 questionnaires were distributed. A total of 512 questionnaires were returned, and after excluding invalid samples, 379 valid questionnaires were obtained. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 22 years, with men accounting for 32% (121 individuals) and women accounting for 68% (258 individuals).

The manipulative activities of cause-related marketing advertisements refer to the one-to-one philanthropic marketing model of TOMS Shoes, where the company donates a pair of shoes for every pair sold, as mentioned in Rapert et al. [42], as well as the text-based promotional advertising methods described in Jeong et al. [86]; specifically, text-based promotional advertisements were used. According to the existing literature, marketing activity content has a greater influence on consumer behavior when it is more relevant to the product category [36]. Therefore, the present study used a “buy one, donate one” cause-related marketing activity for shoes. For every pair of shoes purchased by a consumer, the company donates a pair of shoes to children in need, ensuring a high relevance between the cause (donating shoes) and the product (purchasing shoes). The promotional slogan of TOMS Shoes in China was adapted as the advertisement for the cause-related activity, and a fictitious brand was used to minimize the influence of brand factors on the experimental results. The research questionnaire consists of three parts. The first part includes an explanation of the study and a thank-you note and covers the demographic variables of the participants. The second part presents a promotional message based on cause-related marketing: “M. SHOES Footwear’s Buy One, Donate One Campaign: When you purchase M. SHOES footwear products, you also extend kindness to support a child’s health, education, and well-being. For every new pair of shoes purchased by a customer, M. SHOES will donate a pair of new shoes to a child in need. M. SHOES is committed to improving lives. For every M. SHOES product you buy, the company helps someone in need. To date, M. SHOES has provided more than 75 million new pairs of shoes to children worldwide and helped restore the vision of 500,000 patients”. After reading the cause-related marketing advertisement, participants would proceed to the third part. The third part measures the research variables using a 5-point Likert-type scale with endpoints ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

3.2. Variables

The present study examined the relationships among four constructs: perceptions of cause-related marketing activities, brand perceptions, emotional responses elicited by product advertisements, and consumer purchase intentions. Accordingly, questionnaires were designed to measure “cause-related marketing”, “brand perceptions”, “emotions”, and “purchase intentions”. The development, operational definitions, and measurement methods for these constructs are described as follows. The “cause-related marketing” construct refers to an individual’s support for or favorable attitude toward cause-related marketing activities, specifically their perceptions and feelings toward a company’s advertising of such activities. The present study adopted the perspectives on advertisement measurement shared by Cornwell and Coote [29] and Furman and Maison [9], as well as the language of the questionnaire designed by Folse et al. [3]. Accordingly, four items were proposed: “I like the public welfare activities promoted by M. SHOES”, “I agree with and support such activities”, “Participating in this activity promoted by M. SHOES demonstrates enthusiasm for public welfare”, and “I prioritize buying products from companies that engage in such public welfare activities”. For the “brand perceptions” construct, the present study referenced Aaker’s [47] brand equity framework and the concept of brand image formation [49,50], defining “brand perceptions” as the impressions, feelings, and opinions about a brand that consumers develop after being exposed to cause-related activity information. The following four questionnaire items for brand perceptions were adapted from Chaudhuri and Holbrook [87], Du et al. [88], and Wei et al. [8]: “I think M. SHOES products are valuable”, “Purchasing M. SHOES products is worthwhile”, “M. SHOES is a socially responsible company”, and “M. SHOES is a trustworthy brand”. For the “emotions” construct, the existing literature has suggested that emotions represent an individual’s evaluations or responses to events or situations [16,64]. Accordingly, the present study referenced the existing literature [16,27] (i.e., Perugini and Bagozzi [27]; Koenig-Lewis et al. [16]) and classified emotions into two categories: positive and negative. Vocabulary related to emotions was adapted from the questionnaires developed by Ou and Verhoef [19] and Koenig-Lewis et al. [16]. After reading the description of the marketing activity, participants were asked to evaluate their emotions using the following items: “I feel happy”, “optimistic”, “proud”, and “satisfied” for positive emotions; “I feel worried” and “nervous” for negative emotions. For the “purchase intentions” construct, the performance of cause-related marketing can be assessed through consumer attitudes and purchase intentions [28,34,35,45]. Accordingly, the present study referenced the questionnaires developed by Hagtvedt and Patrick [34] and Wei et al. [8], and modified their items to include aspects of perception, support, and intention to purchase. Specifically, four items were designed to measure purchase intentions: “I would consider buying the M. SHOES Products”, “Even if other brands are cheaper, I would prioritize purchasing M. SHOES products”, “When choosing products, I prioritize those associated with public welfare activities”, and “I have a high intention to purchase M. SHOES products”.

4. Results

To observe model paths and conduct exploratory analysis, the statistical software Smart PLS 3.0 and the partial least squares (PLS) method were used to test the research model and to perform the model path and mediation effect analyses. PLS is a commonly used structural analysis tool that can estimate causal relationships among multiple latent variables and evaluate the effects of mediating variables; it has the advantage of being able to analyze exploratory complex models [89]. Additionally, PLS is applicable for smaller research samples and has lenient requirements for variables to meet normality and randomness assumptions [90]. Because PLS does not inherently enable significance testing, a resampling procedure was adopted for significance testing. The present study employed the bootstrapping method, and in accordance with PLS recommendations, the resampling size was set to 5000 to ensure stable parameter estimation results [91]. Parameter estimation and inference based on 379 valid samples were conducted to understand the relationships between observed variables and latent variables. First, the measurement model was assessed by evaluating the internal quality of the model through the Cronbach’s α coefficients, composite reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the observed variables. Next, structural model analysis was conducted to examine the causal relationships among latent variables within the research model.

4.1. Assessment of Measurement Model

The questionnaire items for measuring “cause-related marketing”, “brand perceptions”, “positive emotions”, “negative emotions”, and “purchase intentions” in the present study were primarily adapted from existing literature [8,9,16,19,34,87,88], ensuring the content validity of the measurement items used. To assess the reliability of the measurement model, Cronbach’s α and composite reliability (CR) values were calculated [89]. The results revealed that the Cronbach’s α and CR values for all constructs in the present study were above 0.7 (

Table 1. Reliability and validity assessment.

Constructs	Items	Factor Loadings	α	CR	AVE
Cause-related marketing	CRM1	0.854	0.903	0.933	0.776
	CRM2	0.858
	CRM3	0.906
	CRM4	0.904
Brand perceptions	BA1	0.833	0.866	0.903	0.651
	BA2	0.825
	BA3	0.781
	BA4	0.841
	BA5	0.751
Positive emotions	PE1	0.864	0.866	0.909	0.714
	PE2	0.856
	PE3	0.797
	PE4	0.862
Negative emotions	NE1	0.951	0.85	0.929	0.867
	NE2	0.911
Purchase intentions	PI1	0.779	0.822	0.881	0.65
	PI2	0.803
	PI3	0.793
	PI4	0.846
		All > 0.7		All > 0.7	All > 0.5

Note: CR (composite reliability); α (Cronbach’s α); AVE (average variance extracted).

), indicating good internal consistency and construct reliability of the data obtained. Regarding validity testing, validity was classified into two types: convergent validity and discriminant validity. To assess convergent validity, the average variance extracted (AVE) was used, applying Fornell and Larcker’s [92] recommendation that AVE values should exceed 0.5, and factor loadings should exceed 0.7. Table 1 reveals that all factor loadings and AVE values in the present study exceeded the recommended thresholds, indicating good convergent validity. To assess discriminant validity, the criterion proposed by Hair et al. [89] was applied, which requires the square root of the AVE for each construct to be greater than the correlation coefficients between constructs. Specifically, the diagonal AVE square root values must exceed the corresponding horizontal or vertical correlation coefficients in the matrix. Additionally, the recommendation by Henseler et al. [93] to calculate the average heterotrait–heteromethod (HTMT) ratio was applied, with a threshold of less than 0.85 indicating appropriate discriminant validity. The results indicated that the smallest square root of the AVE for the constructs in the present study was 0.806 (

Table 2. Summary of discriminant validity.

Correlations Among Latent Variables in Measurement Model
	1	2	3	4	5
Cause-related marketing 1	0.881
Brand perceptions 2	0.774	0.807
Positive emotions 3	0.713	0.665	0.845
Negative emotions 4	−0.378	−0.297	−0.246	0.931
Purchase intentions 5	0.46	0.579	0.503	0.006	0.806
HTMT Ratio Testing Among Constructs
Cause-related marketing 1
Brand perceptions 2	0.868
Positive emotions 3	0.805	0.763
Negative emotions 4	0.423	0.341	0.282
Purchase intentions 5	0.5	0.66	0.577	0.191

Note: Diagonal gray cells in table represent square root of average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct. Lower triangle represents correlation coefficients between constructs.

), and no construct exceeded a correlation coefficient of 0.774. The HTMT ratio results indicated that, except for the ratio of brand perceptions to cause-related marketing (0.868), which was slightly above the standard (0.85), all other HTMT ratios were below 0.85. Some scholars have suggested that an HTMT ratio below 0.9 is indicative of good discriminant validity [94]. Thus, the constructs in the present study demonstrated sufficient discriminant validity. In summary, the measurement model in the present study demonstrated sufficient reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. To test for multicollinearity in the structural model, the present study followed the recommendation of Kock and Lynn [95], suggesting that the variance inflation factor (VIF) for constructs should be less than 3.3. In the present study, all VIF values for the internal model were below 3.2 (all < 3.3), confirming the absence of multicollinearity issues in the model.

The model’s goodness-of-fit was evaluated using the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) [89,93,96]. SRMR is commonly used to measure the fit of structural models in PLS-SEM. SRMR values range between 0 and 1, with values that approximate 0 indicating better overall model fit. A SRMR value below the critical threshold of 0.08 signifies that the overall structural model has good fit [89,96]. In the present study, the SRMR value of the structural model was 0.084, which is slightly higher than the recommended threshold of 0.08. According to Hu and Bentler [96], although an SRMR value between 0.05 and 0.08 indicates a fair fit, factors such as sample size, estimators, and distribution differences make it difficult to apply specific cut-off points for SRMR values to all types of research. A universally fixed threshold does not exist, but because the SRMR value in the present study approached 0.08 and remained below 0.1 (0.1 indicates a poor fit), the model demonstrated an acceptable fit.

4.2. Structural Model Assessment: Direct Effect

Bootstrap resampling was conducted with 5000 samples to calculate parameters and assess the significance of model coefficients [89], causal relationships were tested, and path coefficients and explained variance (R²) were estimated. A high R² value indicates that the dependent variable exhibits greater explanatory power within the model [92]. As shown Figure 2 and

Table 3. Path coefficients and hypothesis testing results of structural model.

Direct Effects		Path Coefficient	BCI		SD	t	p	f2	Decision
			2.50%	97.5%
H1	Cause-related marketing → Purchase	−0.008	−0.175	0.173	0.088	0.090	0.929	0.000	No.
H2	Cause-related marketing →Brand	0.774 ***	0.725	0.814	0.023	33.447	0.000	1.490	Supported
H3	Brand → Purchase	0.492 ***	0.337	0.637	0.078	6.286	0.000	0.151	Supported
H4	Positive emotions → Purchase	0.232 **	0.069	0.376	0.080	2.915	0.004	0.041	Supported
H5	Negative emotions → Purchase	0.206 ***	0.111	0.300	0.048	4.265	0.000	0.061	No.
H6a	Cause-related marketing → Positive emotions	0.494 ***	0.37	0.608	0.061	8.154	0.000	0.214	Supported
H6b	Cause-related marketing → Negative emotions	−0.370 ***	−0.507	−0.219	0.073	5.102	0.000	0.064	Supported
H7a	Brand → Positive emotions	0.283 ***	0.162	0.407	0.062	4.554	0.000	0.070	Supported
H7b	Brand → Negative emotions	−0.010	−0.155	0.132	0.073	0.138	0.890	0.000	No.
Indirect effects		Path coefficient	BCI		SD	t-value	p-value		Decision
			2.50%	97.5%
H8a	Cause-related marketing → Positive emotions → Purchase	0.115 **	0.036	0.195	0.041	2.810	0.005		Supported
H8b	Cause-related marketing → Negative emotions → Purchase	−0.076 **	−0.129	−0.038	0.023	3.291	0.001		Supported

Note: ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

, the explained variance R² values obtained in this study were: brand perceptions R² = 0.598; positive emotions R² = 0.54; negative emotions R² = 0.143; and purchase intentions cumulative R² = 0.399. These results indicate a certain level of predictive power among the latent variables.

The path relationships in Table 3 reveal the following findings. The effect of cause-related marketing on purchase intentions was not significant (β = −0.008, p = 0.929), thereby supporting H1. Regarding H2, which pertained to the relationship between cause-related marketing activities and brand perceptions, the results indicated the significant positive effect of cause-related marketing on brand perceptions (β = 0.774, p < 0.001), thereby supporting H2. Regarding H3, which addressed the relationship between brand perceptions and purchase intentions, the results indicated that brand perceptions significantly positive influenced purchase intentions (β = 0.492, p < 0.001), thereby supporting H3. Regarding H4 and H5, which focused on the effects of positive and negative emotions on purchase intentions, the results revealed that positive emotions had a significant effect on purchase intentions (β = 0.232, p < 0.01). Although negative emotions also had a significant effect on purchase intentions (β = 0.206, p < 0.001), this effect was not the significant negative effect proposed in Hypothesis 5. Therefore, H4 was supported, whereas H5 was not supported. Regarding H6, which examined the relationship between cause-related marketing activities and emotions, the results indicated that consumer support for cause-related marketing activities had a positive effect on positive emotions and a negative effect on negative emotions, thereby supporting H6a and H6b (H6a, β = 0.494, p < 0.001; H6b, β = −0.37, p < 0.001). The subsequent analysis examined the effect of brand perceptions on emotions, revealing that brand perceptions had a significant effect on positive emotions (β = 0.283, p < 0.001), thereby supporting H7a. However, brand perceptions did not have a significant effect on negative emotions (β = −0.01, p = 0.89). Therefore, H7b was not supported.

4.3. Indirect Effects: Mediation Analysis

The mediating effects of emotions on the relationship between cause-related marketing and purchase intentions were tested using the bootstrapping method [97,98]. Mediation effects are established if the confidence interval for the indirect effect obtained through bootstrapping does not include 0 [99] or if a significant association exists between the predictor and the mediator, as well as between the mediator and the outcome variable [100]. The results (Table 3 and Figure 2) revealed that cause-related marketing activities had a positive effect on purchase intentions through the mediation of positive emotions (β = 0.115, p < 0.01). Conversely, cause-related marketing activities had a negative effect on purchase intentions through the mediation of negative emotions (β = −0.076, p < 0.01). The size of the mediation effects was then evaluated using the variance accounted for (VAF) method. The VAF value for the path through positive emotions was calculated as −107.48%, and that for the path through negative emotions was 90.48%. According to Ali and Park’s [101] interpretation of VAF values. In the present study, both mediation effects had VAF values exceeding 80%. These results indicate that positive and negative emotions both fully mediated the relationship between cause-related marketing activities and purchase intentions, thereby supporting both H8a and H8b.

5. Discussion and Conclusions

The presented study examined the effect of cause-related marketing activities on consumer purchase attitudes through the roles of brand and emotions. First, the relationships between cause-related marketing, brand perceptions, and consumer purchase attitudes were explored. The results indicated that a company’s execution of cause-related marketing activities did not directly influence consumers’ purchase intentions for the company’s products. However, a positive relationship existed between cause-related marketing activities and brand perceptions. When consumers supported a company’s execution of cause-related marketing activities, their brand perceptions of the company were more positive. Finally, a significant relationship between brand perceptions and purchase intentions was also identified. For consumers, a favorable impression of the brand executing cause-related marketing activities increased their intention to purchase products from that company. These results confirmed the argument made in previous studies that cause-related marketing is connected to consumers; however, they also indicated that marketing effectiveness did not directly influence consumer behavior [36,45,57]. Instead, the company’s behavior in supporting nonprofit organizations enhances brand favorability, which improves the overall brand evaluation. The strengthened emotional attachment to the cause-related brand subsequently extends to purchase intentions [57,58]. These results affirm the marketing value of cause-related marketing and suggest that strengthening the connection between cause-related marketing activities and the brand helps enhance the company’s brand image and extended evaluations [6,28,30,41,45]. Previous studies on cause-related marketing have explored various marketing strategies and contexts, resulting in varying effects. For example, factors such as the source of beneficiaries and brand types influence consumer decisions [9]; for online insurance companies, combining cause-related marketing activities with charitable donations does not increase consumers’ purchase intentions [45]; and studies have also investigated the effects of product types [28,35] and cause-related marketing activity strategies [37]. This study primarily aimed to clarify the relationships between cause-related marketing activities, brand perceptions, and consumer purchase attitudes. Specifically, positive perceptions of cause-related marketing led to favorable brand perceptions, which in turn increased subsequent purchase intentions. This pathway of consumer behavioral intentions provides valuable insights into the effects of cause-related marketing.

Another key focus of this study was to investigate the role of emotions in the process of consumer attitude formation. Based on the results pertaining to H4 and H5, both positive and negative emotions positively influence purchase intentions, contradicting the assumption presented in Hypothesis 5. That is, the emotional responses evoked by cause-related marketing activities (whether positive or negative emotions) lead to higher purchase intentions. H6 examined the relationships between cause-related marketing activities and the two types of emotions, and the results fully supported this hypothesis. H7 pertained to the effect of brand perceptions on emotions. Only H7a, which states that brand perceptions significantly affect positive emotions, was supported. This result suggests that consumer support for cause-related marketing activities positively affects positive emotions and negatively affects negative emotions. Brand perceptions positively and significantly influence positive emotions but do not have a negative effect on negative emotions. Positive emotions also significantly and positively affect purchase intentions. These findings reveal a phenomenon: positive emotions align with expectations in the relationships between cause-related marketing activities, brand perceptions, and purchase behaviors. When consumers increasingly favor, agree with, and support cause-related marketing activities, they are more likely to experience positive emotions such as happiness, optimism, pride, and satisfaction. Additionally, when consumers have better impressions of a brand involved in cause-related marketing, they exhibit more positive emotional responses, which contribute to increased purchase intentions. This aligns with previous research findings, where positive emotions generally led to stronger marketing effects compared with negative emotions [26,67,68,69,72,78]. By contrast, the performance of negative emotions in the overall process did not meet expectations. The present study mainly investigated whether the effects of cause-related marketing are similar to those of other products, drawing on perspectives from Bigné et al. [60] and Romani et al. [81] on the relationship between cause-related marketing brands and emotions to hypothesize about negative emotions. Although the hypothesis was not verified, the inconsistency in marketing effects arising from situational differences involving negative emotions in previous studies was highlighted [73,74,75,76]. For example, Zhou et al. [74] suggested that negative emotions in poverty alleviation advertisements evoke consumer guilt. This is a type of negative emotion triggered by advertisements (guilt), which subsequently leads to a series of reactions, from evoking feelings of guilt to influencing purchase intentions. The present study confirmed that positive emotions had stronger marketing effects on consumers. The response to negative emotions did not support several research hypotheses, which may align with the argument by Romani et al. [81] that specific types of negative emotions influence brand relationships in different ways and that different behavioral responses are triggered by different types of negative emotions.

Regarding the mediating role of emotions, the results indicated that both positive and negative emotions served as mediators between cause-related marketing activities and purchase intentions. Positive emotions had a positive influence, whereas negative emotions had a negative influence. This suggests that consumers who favor and agree with cause-related marketing activities are more likely to experience positive emotions such as happiness, optimism, pride, and satisfaction, leading to higher purchase intentions. Conversely, negative emotions such as feelings of worry and nervousness reduced purchase intentions. This finding aligns with previous literature suggesting that emotions act as mediating variables for behavioral intentions [67,68,70,72,73]. It also confirms the mediating role of emotions in marketing as discussed by Garg et al. [84] and Jang and Namkung [83], where positive emotions trigger subsequent responses that lead to favorable consumer decisions. In addition, the finding supports Wei et al. [85], who argued that negative emotions reduce and weaken marketing relationships.

Based on the above, the following two points are summarized to extend the thoughts of practitioners in implementing cause-related marketing strategies. First, a direct influence was not observed between cause-related marketing activities and purchase intentions. Additionally, consumers’ brand perceptions of companies engaging in cause-related marketing influence their intention to purchase the company’s products. That is, a positive brand impression increases purchase intentions. Therefore, strengthening the connection between cause-related marketing activities and the brand helps enhance subsequent purchase intentions. Second, the present study focused on exploring the marketing effects of cause-related marketing, brand, and emotions, confirming the positive marketing effect of positive emotions and the mediating roles of both types of emotions. Although the results for negative emotions did not align with expectations, they still verified the diversity of changes in negative emotions during the process of consumer attitude formation. Previous studies have yielded varied results regarding negative emotions in research, with their fluctuations producing different outcomes due to differences in influencing factors. This study examines the mediating role of emotions in cause-related marketing, serving as a reference for subsequent research on cause-related marketing. As an effective strategy for enhancing corporate reputation and competitiveness through corporate social responsibility, cause-related marketing is not only advanced in understanding by this study but also provides valuable insights for the development of corporate social responsibility.

6. Limitations and Future Studies

The geographical area of this study is limited to Chinese consumers. Moreover, the age of the tested samples belongs to the future consumer group, and the sampling method adopted is convenient sampling method, which may not represent all consumers and generalize the analysis results. Therefore, there are still some limitations and deficiencies. To control the research context, the present study used a fictitious shoe brand to avoid influencing participants’ judgments. This approach was based on the existing advertising situation in the market, but the gap between these virtual advertisements and real shoe product advertisements introduces limitations to the study’s realism. Future studies should use real cause-related marketing advertisements as the basis for research products to yield findings more reflective of real-world situations.

Although the cause-related marketing brands used in the present study demonstrated marketing effects that enhanced purchase intentions, the results pertaining to negative emotions, a key focus of the study, were unanticipated. This outcome aligns with the inconsistencies regarding the effects of negative emotions in previous studies. Furthermore, the present study did not examine the influence of additional consumer attributes or environmental factors on the outcomes of cause-related marketing. The dynamic effects on consumers in rapidly changing environments were not fully captured. Even though the findings confirmed that emotions mediate the relationship between consumers’ perceptions of cause-related marketing and purchase intentions, the complete pathway of negative emotions could not be verified. Future research should focus on exploring the mechanism of negative emotions, examining various product types or individual factors as potential directions. This approach could clarify the role of negative emotions in the attitude formation process.

The present study on cause-related marketing has yielded abundant results. However, factors influencing marketing effectiveness, such as various product types and consumer personal attributes, may have varying effects on the results of marketing strategies. These topics are beyond the scope of the present study but provide a crucial direction for future research. To enable in-depth discussions, future studies could incorporate economic and social dimensions, such as the differences between cause-related donations and actions, the effect of company size in cause-related marketing, the role of government and non-government organizations, the influence of consumer involvement, and the differences across product types in cause-related marketing. Finally, the present study used a questionnaire survey for validation, and the sample size was limited. The age demographic is also relatively homogeneous. Whether the conclusions can be generalized to all consumers requires further research validation.

Cause-related marketing activities excel in influencing consumers to establish brand perceptions and purchase intentions because of the positive effects conveyed by the brand. The present study developed a model to illustrate the effect of cause-related marketing activities on purchase intentions and explored the differing results of positive and negative emotions, thereby contributing to the understanding of the factors influencing perceptions of cause-related marketing activities and enhancing their effectiveness.