Role of celebrity in cause related marketing

Cause-related Marketing (CrM) has emerged as a rewarding strategy in developing nations for both brand and nonprofit organizations by changing the nature of corporate engagement in social causes. Celebrity endorsements have become popular in CrM in recent years, as they have always been with brand marketing in the past. In this study, we have developed a conceptual model to analyze the influence of celebrity credibility on the antecedents of cause-related marketing. A survey of literature showed that four antecedents - ‘celebrity-cause fit’, ‘celebrity brand fit’, ‘cause-brand fit’ and ‘brand credibility’ are important and were used in the study. Data were collected from 406 college students through a questionnaire-based survey. The results showed that celebrity credibility significantly influences all the antecedents of cause-related marketing and in turn influences outcome variables such as ‘attitude towards cause-related marketing’ and ‘purchase intention’. Celebrity-cause fit and cause-brand fit did not have significant influence on attitude towards cause-related marketing. Future research avenues and implications are discussed.