Brand Awareness And Purchase Intention Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

This study aims to investigate the issue of cause-related marketing (CaRM), how it has affected consumers' attitude towards brand, and how it has impacted on consumers' purchase intention. The study aims to present a case study of the UK-based healthy food and drink company, The Innocent Drinks Ltd., and build on the current body of literature and previous research.

It is recognised that today's marketplace is full of products with similar quality, price and service. Many companies are turning to integrate cause-related marketing (CaRM) into their marketing strategies as a communication tool for differentiating themselves and products (Roy and Graeff, 2003). Companies show their corporate social responsibility through their advertising, packaging, and promotions and work with non-profit organisations or support for causes.

Cause-related marketing is increasing in popularity as a form of promotion (Samu & Wymer, 2009). It is due to the fact that there are benefits for companies involved in CaRM (Docherty & Hibbert, 2003). CaRM can help companies to present the responsiveness and social concerns of this company (Wulfson, 2001), establish and enhance the public image (Chattananon et al., 2004), create a competitive advantage to differentiate brands (Karna et al., 2003) and develop customer relationships (Till &Nowak, 2000).

Furthermore, CaRM has been proved to have impact on brand awareness and customer behaviour as well. According to that research CaRM can create brand awareness (Bronn and Vrioni, 2001) and stimulate consumer's purchase intention (Dawkins, 2004). They presented positive relationships between the CaRM and consumer's attitude and behaviour. In other words, consumers are more likely to purchase a cause-related product, and have a more positive impression to the companies which are involved in CaRM. However, it will change when cause-related products result in higher prices or when it lowers the quality of the product (Barone, Miyazaki & Taylor, 2000).

Although consumers have favourable attitudes toward brands assotiation with CaRM strategies (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 2005), scepticism is on the rise (Forehand and Grier, 2003). Based on the intuitive belief, people are initially skeptical about the CaRM strategies. In their opinions, the motivation of CaRM is the egoistic interest instead of a true desire for social commitment (Speed and Thompson, 2000). Consumer scepticism makes consumers doubt what a firm is saying. This scepticism leads consumers to reject claims made in CaRM campaigns and affect their purchase behaviour. It is important for companies pursuing CaRM but they must have a full understanding of consumers and their level of scepticism before attempting this marketing technique.

There are many companies integrated CaRM into their marketing strategies, particularly in the UK. The Innocent Drinks Ltd. is a typical example of attempting CaRM successfully. It is famous for making the healthy food and drinks including smoothies, juice and veg pots. As the market leader in the fast-growing smoothie market in the UK, the Innocent Drinks has a strong image of being ethical and eco-friendly. Innocent Drinks launched a number of marketing campaign and activities. A large part of them are assigned to CaRM marketing strategy. One of the most popular campaigns in the UK is the Big Knit held by Innocent Drinks. The Big Knit which launched by Innocent and the Age UK is designed to provide support for older people in chilly winter. The detailed profile and background of the company and the campaign are explained in the next chapter.

This study is based on this Innocent Drinks case. To investigate the impact of the cause-related marketing, the Innocent Drinks and its campaign The Big Knit is as an empirical example. The researcher has a keen personal interest in the topic of cause-related marketing. The researcher believes that the following study will be beneficial not only to the field of academia and to managers, but also to the researcher as an individual.

Study objectives

Mainstream of the world business is in international level therefore adopting cause-related marketing is important because cause-related marketing is a unique win-win-win strategy. CaRM generates goodwill and revenue for the company, benefits the society, and creates positive feelings for the consumers as a result of their purchase decision. There are more and more organisations attempting cause-related marketing strategies and a number of researches have explored the field of CaRM. However, in the CaRM realm there is still a scarcity of empirical research, especially in the UK. Besides, there are little research identified the relationship of CaRM and consumer's attitude and purchase intention from the consumer's perception. Hence, drawing upon existing literature, the main objectives of the study is to explore the relationship between the CaRM and consumer's brand attitude and purchase intention. Moreover, it also examines whether CaRM strategy has influences on brand attitude and purchase intention or not.

Outline of the methodology adopted

The study uses survey to collect primary data and uses the review of case, literature, online and offline resources to gather secondary data which is required for the study. The survey was conducted online by people who ever bought the Innocent Drinks. Both primary and secondary data were record and presented. The primary data were analysed using quantitative methods. The research approach to the study follows the positivism line of argument (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009).

The line of argument the study will follow

The study analyses and builds on previous research about the profile of the Innocent Drinks, in the field of CaRM, customer brand attitude and purchase intention. Regarding the topic, the study gaps in current knowledge will be identified by this study. Then quantitative data analysis will be used to answer the research questions. Afterwards, recommendations will be proposed at the end of the study. Finally limitations will be recognized which are suggestions for further research. The relatively small sample sized is the biggest limitation in this study. For the further research, researcher must take great care about generalising the findings.

Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter introduces the literature of the area of interest based on previous works by academics and practitioners. It aims to give the reader a complete overview of the company background and the past studies. History of the Innocent Company and its place in the market; how its marketing strategies have affected the company; the background of the Big Knit campaign and its impact are first induced. Next is a review of academic theory, with a focus on marketing communication, its role and objective in marketing activities and why it is important in marketplace. Further, brand attitude is assessed with the potential meaning of the attitude and what kind of results it will lead to. Afterwards, purchase intention and factors which have influence on purchase intention and behaviour are discussed. Finally, there is a discussion of cause-related marketing contextualising in terms of Innocent Drinks. This chapter examines gaps in the literature and gives evidence as to why this study is important.

Innocent Drinks Company

History

As an international brand with a turnover of £76 million, Innocent Drinks has a rough history. In 1998, three men sold pure fruit smoothies at a small music festival. They provided two dustbins for customers to deposit their empty cups, one labelled 'yes' the other 'no'. The question appeared on the bins was 'should we give up our jobs to make these smoothies?' By the end of the weekend, the 'yes' bin was full thus Innocent Drinks was born (Innocent Drinks, 2012).

The company was founded in 1999 by Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright, three Cambridge graduates working in management consultancy (BBC News, 2010). It got its first big bit of press in the Evening Standard. Innocent's first overseas office opened in Dublin in 2000. It started to get a trial listing of smoothies in 10 Waitrose stores. It donated 46% of all profit to charity. In 2002 its product kitchen opened and stuff had a place to invent smoothies. In 2004 Innocent's own foundation begun and the company started its best tradition which is donating 10% of annual profits to do good things. So far it have committed £1.3million and directly helped over 330,000 people. Smoothies for kids were launched in 2005. For the same year, the company's first TV ad went to the telly. In 2007, the Innocent started making the bottles from 100% recycled plastic which became a world first. Innocent expanded into food with the launch of the mighty veg pot in 2008 (Innocent Drinks, 2012). Due to the financial crisis and being hit by inflation on the cost of fruit in 2009, Innocent suffered a recession (Ball, 2011). Coca-Cola took an 18% share of Innocent. In 2010, the share taken by Coca-Cola expands to a 58% stake (BBC News, 2010). They still invented new product fruit tubes for kids and it was an innovation for people who don't like fruit. The next year, they launched the famous product orange juice.

Nowadays the company has become the leader of smoothies market, with a 77% share of the £150 million UK market (Ball, 2011). Innocent sells over two million pure fruit smoothies each week in 11,000 outlets everywhere from Boots to Sainsbury's local deli (Innocent Drinks, 2012). Innocent has grown into an international company and their products are available in over 13 countries now (Innocent Drinks, 2012). There are approximately 250 employees of Innocent Drinks in total. It has become the UK's fastest growing food and drink company without compromising its creative company culture.

Marketing strategy

Segmentation is the division of the market within different groups which members share similar needs and requirements (Huang, Tzeng & Ong, 2007). Innocent' marketing strategy exploits the different market segments by offering a range of products targeted at different groups such as the smoothies for kids.

Following segmentation, targeting determines which segments are appropriate depending on their needs (Reutterer et al, 2006). Innocent's target market is health-conscious-people that want to improve their diets, time-strained-people that want to be healthy but do not have the time to make healthy food choices or gym, parents who may give this to children as an alternative option to fizzy drinks (Innocent Drinks, 2012).

Positioning strategy allows one product to be differentiated from another. This can be regarded as a competitive advantage for the business. In order to implement this strategy the business need to have a unique selling point (Hooley, Piercy & Nicoulaud, 2008). The image Innocent tries to give to the general public is of an environmentally friendly business. Innocent uses natural products and sustainable packaging. What's more important, The Innocent has a strong image of ethical-driven. It donates 10% of profits each year to charity and innocent foundation (Innocent Drinks, 2012), as Innocent say in its website, "To leave the planet a little bit better than we found it".

Innocent marketing strategies have developed and sustained a creative culture for its business. These strategies also enable Innocent Drinks to remain true to its core brand values throughout an extended period of growth and expansion.

The Big Knit

Innocent Drinks sticks to innovative cause-related marketing campaign. The Big Knit is a recent popular campaign launched by Innocent in the UK. Age UK joined forces with Innocent nine years ago for the Big Knit which is a scheme to raises money for keeping elderly people warm at winter (Age UK, 2010).

Innocent consumers and Sainsbury's staff knitting little woolly hats to adorn innocent smoothie bottles. For each be-hatted smoothie sold, innocent will give 25p to Age UK to fund. The Big Knit has grown every year, and in 2011 Innocent smashed the £1 million mark of total money raised over the campaign's history (Innocent Drinks, 2012). Rachel Rowland, juice brand manager at Innocent drinks, said: "The Big Knit is a fantastic way to get creative and raise money for a great cause."

This cause-related marketing campaign has wide impacts. It is much more than an on-pack promotion because it raises much needed funds to help people and engages directly with consumers through the mechanism of knitting (Age UK, 2010). It is not only a way to improve the sales, but also a quirky way to give something back to society.

Cause-related marketing

"A type of marketing that is intended to benefit society, and in which business get involved in supporting the activities of not-for-profit organizations, is known as cause-related marketing."

-Klopper et al (2006, p.426)

Cause-related marketing is a popular method for sponsoring company and for the participating cause of improving marketing relationships with customers (Gupta and Pirsch, 2006). Nowadays CaRM is one of the most growing and popular marketing tools for for-profit organisations and causes to use (Samu & Wymer, 2009). More companies are investing in CaRM programs because customers are becoming more critical in choosing products and services and consider more on price, quality and a companies' social responsibility (Baghi, Rubaltelli and Tedeschi, 2009).

CaRM has been the focus of extensive research over the last few years (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 2005; Hamlin and Wilson, 2004; Pracejus and Olsen, 2004). A few researches have been undertaken to determine the effects of this strategy (Brink, Odekerken-Schröder and Pauwels, 2006). CaRM strategy has been proved to have the impacts on some aspects (Liu, Liston-Heyes and Ko, 2010). For example, strategically involving in CaRM campaigns can enhance corporate internal legitimacy so that it reinforces the message that the firm is doing good in a way that matters to them (Balmer, Fukukawa and Gray, 2007). Another aspect focuses on employees that CaRM campaigns can help realign employees' own socially oriented personal values (Collier and Esteban, 2007; Valor, 2007). In addition, CaRM campaign benefits and connects with external stakeholders such as charity institution (Du, Bhattacharya and Sen, 2007; Sen Bhattacharya and Korschun, 2006). Although CaRM has influence on these aspects, there are still few academic researches refer to the impacts of cause-related marketing towards the customer's perception. This research fills in the gap and focus on the influence of CaRM to customers based on the foundation of preliminary research.

Some research to date suggests consumer perceptions of CaRM (Trimble and Rifon, 2006). There are some researchers investigate the consumer perceptions of compatibility in CaRM (Trimble and Rifon, 2006). Previous academic research findings state that consumers are receptive to CaRM (Lafferty, Goldsmith and Hult, 2004). Besides the focus of compatibility, preliminary research findings also suggest that retailer's cause-related marketing strategy has the potential to influence consumer perceptions and retailer image then ultimately impact the retailer's competitive advantage in the market (Ailawadi and Keller 2004). Consumers are proved to be less sensitive to price and product attribute differences after exposure to a CRM campaign (Pracejus and Olsen, 2004). Consumers are also willing to buy cause-related products which must not have a higher price or lower product performance (Lavack and Kropp, 2003). In addition, there is a relationship between the nature of the compatibility and consumer's response that the greater the consumer's perception of compatibility, the more positive consumer's response (Cornwell, Weeks and Roy, 2005).

According to previous studies, consumers are more willing to buy cause-related products if the cause is important to them. As a result, it is necessary for organisations to assess what kind of causes is important to their target market. Consumers intend to buy a cause-related product when it is a luxury item. It is due to the fact that consumers feel guilty for buying a luxury product which they do not actually need. However, making donation to the cause can compensate the guilty feeling (Nan and Heo, 2007).

As a consequence of these findings firms should first assess consumer perceptions of both the firm and the charities before desiring a greater impact of cause-related marketing activities (Barone, Norman and Miyazaki, 2007). These academic studies emphasis on the customer's response and compatibility but this research focuses on the customer's attitude which reflects the first intuition of customer towards the marketing strategies. These previous studies about customer perception provide a support to this research.

Moreover, some studies have shown that customer's attitude toward CaRM may be less positive in countries where CaRM is less established (Lavack and Kropp, 2003). For UK market where CaRM is established maturely, it is necessary to investigate customer's attitude to CaRM. However, there are few studies referring to the CaRM based on the UK market. This study aims to explore the CaRM implementation in UK market.

Although corporate and consumer are interested in cause-related marketing, it has been commented that academic research into consumer attitudes and responses to cause-related marketing is at an early stage (Nan and Heo, 2007). At present, some researchers have explored the topic of CaRM and customer perception, but most of them use fictitious scenarios which prevent researchers from generalising the findings to real world consumers' behaviour (Baghi, Rubaltelli and Tedeschi, 2009). It is due to the fact that in real world purchasing, consumers' behaviours are differentiated along many different dimensions.

In addition, these previous studies did not provide adequate information to assist marketing managers with assessing the appropriateness of this strategy for their particular target market and brand (Nan and Heo, 2007). They did not use real brands to do the research, and these studies refer to the situation in general instead of a specific brand. In fact, the brand itself is a relevant feature of the product which impacts people's feelings (Lefferty and Goldsmith, 2005). On the basis of this situation, there is a need for more exploration into the circumstances in which CaRM influences on a specific brand and market.

This study investigates the case of a specific brand in the real UK market based on the preliminary researches of CaRM. It explores more specific impact of CaRM to customers and provides assistance for marketers in academic area.

Brand attitude

"People who think about brands and what they mean to consumers often talk in terms of things like 'value', 'perceived quality', and 'image'. What this all comes down to is brand attitude, the associations in memory linked to the brand."

-Elliott and Percy (2007, p.87)

Brand attitude is an individual's overall evaluation of a brand that mainly depends on a consumer's own perceptions toward a brand. It is also regarded as a reliable predictor of consumers' behaviour toward brands (Shimp, 2010). The topic is increasingly popular primarily due to the fact that attitude toward a brand is a key component for valuing a brand's equity (Liu et al, 2012). Attitudes are not constant and marketing communications strategies can change attitudes. This study discusses the impact of CaRM which is a tool of marketing communication on consumer's brand attitude. It will verify the statement that brand attitude can be changed by marketing communication.

According to the attitude theory history, consumer's attitude was discussed in many researches constantly. Some preliminary researches focused on investigating the attitude toward the marketing communication such as advertisement (Nan, 2006) instead of the brand. They explored that attitudes toward advertisements mediate brand choice through their effects on brand attitudes (Baker, 2001). However, some researches in this area have not examined in detail and failed to keep up with the current research on consumer psychology. Moreover, these studies examined the attitude toward the marketing communication while this research explores deeper and dedicate to filling the gap of attitude toward the brand.

Brand attitude play an important role in influencing consumer's behavior (Madhavaram and Appan, 2010). Brand attitude can affect the consumer's behaviour through the brand attributes (Hajjat, 2003). It also stated that in order to have a positive brand attitude, the consumers need to believe that the brand has the attributes which will satisfy their wants and bring benefit for them. Some researches investigated brand attitude strength (Park et al, 2010) and found that brand attitude have significant influence on the behavioural intentions. They stated that strong attitudes can range from positive to negative. They also found that strong positive attitude is a predictor of customer purchase behavior while strong negative attitude is a predictor of purchase avoidance. However, this research did not figure how to improve the brand attitude and it did research on attitude towards unfamiliar brands. They did not examine whether there is the same result with familiar brands or not. Consumers have established attitudes to familiar brands already so doing research on familiar brand will make new contribution to this area from different perspective. This study dedicates to doing research on the familiar brand and filling to gap.

Attitude toward brand can be influenced by brand image. Brand attitude and brand image are two distinctive concepts but they have close relationship (Liu et al, 2012). Many studies have proved that the accumulation of brand image is an important determinant of attitude towards brand (Martinez and Chernatony, 2004; Ghen and Liu, 2004). Furthermore, other studies verified that brand image helps develop potential buyers' overall evaluation or attitude toward a brand (Helgeson and Supphellen, 2004). Although brand image is not investigated in this study, it is still associated with the CaRM and brand attitude. These studies provide information and background for this research.

Brand attitude are driven by many other factors such as perceived risk, price-quality relationship and product quality inferences (Go´mez and Rubio, 2010). Previous studies have found a significant positive direct relationship between price consciousness and brand attitude (Jin and Suh, 2005). It means consumers show a positive attitude toward the brand when they are aware of value. The inferences of quality could have negative affect on brands attitudes (Collins-Dodd and Lindley, 2003). There are many factors such as product and price having influence on brand attitude but few studies did research on the factor of marketing activity. This research proposes the marketing activity as a factor in affecting brand attitude.

Some previous studies found a positive relationship between attitude and loyalty toward a brand (Liu et al, 2012). According to these studies, they have mutual effects on each other. A positive attitude may result from loyalty and consumer's attitude may influence their loyalty toward the brand (Bolton, Lemon and Verhoef, 2004). Yang and Wang (2010) also found that brand loyalty is positively correlated with brand attitude because consumers who are less loyal to brands are more likely to switch to other brands. Many of these studies did research on general basis, but this study focus on the specific brand and provide real information of consumer's perception. Although this study does not refer much to brand loyalty there is still potential relationship between the loyalty and attitude in the future studies.

In Jayanti, McManamon and Whipple's (2004) attitude research, they proposed the attitude is associated with the cognitive ability which comes with age. However, they did not obtain the results of detail information about the differences of all the age levels. In this research, sample included all the mature consumers and different age dimensions are categorised.

Cause-related marketing and brand attitude

"Cause-related marketing ads can increase the favourability of an individual's attitude toward a nonprofit organization."

-Cordes and Steuerle (2009, p.176)

Numerous researches has been undertaken to investigate the impact of cause-related marketing on consumer's attitude toward brand based on many countries around the world (Shabbir et al, 2010). Many prior studies stated that CaRM strategies have positive effect on consumer's attitude toward brand (Baghi and Gabrielli, 2012). This result means CaRM strategies may lead to favourable attitudes towards the brand. Other researches indicated that CaRM affect consumer's brand attitude by helping for-profit brands to build brand awareness, enhance brand image and establish brand credibility (Hoeffler and Keller, 2002). Similarly, this study researches and examines the positive influence of CaRM on consumer's brand attitude. Based on the previous studies this research explores the objectives by investigating the real for-profit brand.

Some literatures demonstrated the influence of CaRM by using sponsorship as an example (Zdravkovic, Magnusson and Stanley, 2010). Simmons and Becker-Olsen (2006) found that a favourable attitude toward the sponsorship may lead to a more favourable attitude toward the brand because there is a new affective association between the brand and the cause. In particular, if consumers perceive the sponsorship as a favourable activity, they create a positive attitude toward the brand spontaneously (Zdravkovic, Magnusson and Stanley, 2010). Moreover, there is a relationship between consumer's attitude toward the brand and the percentage value of the donation in a CaRM activity (Olsen, Pracejus and Brown, 2003). In other words, if consumers perceived the CaRM activity to be a good way to support a worthy cause, they may have favourable attitudes toward the brand. It is due to consumers' perceptions which they affirm the company is more socially responsible (Lafferty and Edmondson, 2009). Analogously, this research explores this area by using particular CaRM campaign activity as an empirical study. The real case study of the brand and the campaign provides more useful information and cover the deficiency of other academic researches.

Lafferty and Edmondson (2009) stated that CaRM campaign helps to form an alliance between a brand and a cause so that perceptions of both can be improved. Some studies established models to test and measure the alliance on attitude (Lafferty, Goldsmith and Hult, 2004). They found that attitude toward the alliance had a positive effect on brand attitude with a high-familiar brand. Furthermore, Lafferty and Goldsmith (2005) found that attitude toward the brand is higher after exposure than before exposure which indicated there is delay effects of exposure to an alliance. As marketing managers, what they care more about is the alliance's influence on consumer's attitude toward the campaign and the brand (Lafferty and Edmondson, 2009). With the CaRM research on consumer's attitude marketing managers can deal with the cause as well as the brand more handily during the campaign (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 2005). To help the marketers obtain this benefit, this study focuses on this research theme. According to preliminary researches, testing model and measuring alliance are complicated for practical usage so this study adopts survey to measure variables and derive the results which are in common-sense terms and more intuitive.

Cause-related marketing strategy which shows competitive advantages may be an effective way to increase sales and enhance brand loyalty. However, Zdravkovic, Magnusson and Stanley (2010) suggested that not all CaRM strategies lead to positive attitude outcomes. Hamlin and Wilson (2004) also stated that consumers have favourable attitude toward the brand only when there is congruence between the brand and the cause. It indicates company should integrate its brand with its corporate social responsibility and the cause so that consumers are more likely have positive attitudes (Du, Bhattacharya and Sen, 2007). As a result, it is necessary for marketing managers to assess whether the cause may be a good fit with their brand. Samu and Wymer (2009) suggested that consumers should perceive the brand to be more authentic and their brand attitudes should also be positive for supporting the cause. They explained that when fit is high, consumers have the high positive attitude towards the brand because of the cumulative effect of fit and dominance. However, if a brand supports an unrelated cause and consumers believe the brand is taking advantage of the cause, the attitude is negatively affected. The congruence and the fit between the cause and the brand are investigated in this study as well. In order to measure and evaluate the congruence this research conducts a survey to collect the opinion of the consumers. From their perspective, the level of fit between brand and cause are assessed. Besides, this study also explores the fit between the cause and the products so that the results are more comprehensive.

Previous research has shown the fit concept that is related to consumers' attitudes toward the brand (Hamlin and Wilson, 2004). Moreover, good fit can be established in different ways (Fleck and Quester, 2007). Nevertheless, some researchers claimed that there is no effect of fit which means the fit between the cause and the brand does not have influence on attitudes (Lafferty, 2007). Barone, Norman and Miyazaki (2007) suggested that some variables such as consumers' perception of the firm's motives, affinity customers hold for the social causes can moderate the effect of fit. In addition, consumers' level of brand consciousness is also an important variable which influences the effect of fit (Nan and Heo, 2007).

With these complex situations, it is necessary to access the fit matters. Some research demonstrated the fit comparing "very good fit" with"very bad fit" (Simmons and Becker-Olsen, 2006). They claimed that marketing managers usually use their instincts to assess whether it is a good fit or not for some instances. However, this may not always be the case and relying on the instincts is not dependable. In order to assist marketing managers avoid this uncertainty about measuring the fit, this study develops the scales in the survey to evaluate the fit of CaRM cause and brand. This study aims to describe and state the fitting relationship between the brand and the social cause form consumer's perspective.

Most of the literatures refer to the situation in countries such as USA, Australia and New Zealand. Only limited research has been undertaken based on UK market. This study is conceptualised to fill this void.

Purchase intention

"Brand behaviour intention shows how much a customer values a brand and is demonstrated by the brand purchase intentions."

-Kumar (2008, p.194)

Purchase intention is the likelihood that a consumer intends to purchase a product. It has been the research theme which is rooted in psychological and behavioral basis (Dodd and Supa, 2011). Purchase intention is often used to represent the actual behaviour in many studies which investigate consumer behaviour (Lu and Zhou, 2007).

Seeking and getting information represent the intention and purchase behaviour (Lu, Zhao and Wang, 2010). Pavlou and Fygenson (2006) found that the intention to get information influences the purchase intention. They demonstrated that purchase intention is in the requirement cognition stage. It means they found consumers have the desire for a specific type of item but they do not sure which specific item to buy yet. Lu, Zhao and Wang (2010) found that purchase intention can result in actual purchase by searching for more information. They stated that when consumers have the intention for one product but have not decided to buy which type, they usually seek more information about this product. In this information search process, they gradually refine requirements and finally make the purchase decision. In order to measure the degree of purchase intention, the initiative of consumers to seek information about the product and brand is regarded as a criterion in this study. It is demonstrated as a survey question and the initiative of seeking information of this brand reflects the purchase intention.

According to numerous prior studies, consumer's purchase intention is affected by different factors. Low price usually attracts consumers to buy but it does not mean that the price is the most important factor which affects consumers to create strong purchase intention. Shaharudin et al (2011) did research on food industry and they found that price is not the prime factor which enables consumers to purchase the food. However, those sellers who are able to serve good quality food will always win the customer. Sudhir and Talukdar (2004) also found that purchase intention has positive relationship with perception of quality. To make a purchase decision on food, quality and safety are two important elements in consumer's perceptions (Grunert, 2005). In order to attract more purchaser intention, it is necessary for food industry mangers to identify which factors can create consumer purchase intention (Shaharudin et al, 2011). This study introduced the case of food industry as well. These literatures provide similar situation and useful theory assistance for this research. Quality need to be considered as an element when the purchase intention is evaluated.

Besides the quality, there are still various factors influencing the purchase intention and value factor is one of them (Binninger, 2008). Chen (2007) stated that the perceived value is positively associated with purchase intention. According to the previous research, value consciousness has positive relationship with purchase intention (Steiner, 2004). As a result, Companies usually increase consumers' perceived value by the mean of reducing the price. Consumers may have strong purchase intention when they perceived high value degree (Howard and Kerin, 2006). Moreover, Dodd and Supa (2011) identified there is an associations between corporate social responsibility and purchase intentions. They found that there is a relationship between consumer's purchase intention and organizations' involvement in socially responsible programs. Similarly, in this research one of the objectives aims to investigate the relationship between purchase intention and the social cause.

Some studies stated there is influence caused by demographic factors. Yin et al (2010) found that purchase intention is slightly affected by age, gender and education level. Due to these potential influencing factors, this study demonstrates the demographic factors in survey results as well. It shows whether these demographic factors have relationship with purchase intention or not.

Cause-related marketing and purchase intention

"Cause-related marketing efforts link the purchase of products to philanthropic efforts for one or more causes."

-Pride and Ferrell (2009, p.426)

There has been a number of academic and practitioner research which explored the concept of cause-related marketing. However, research which demonstrated the effectiveness of this CaRM in affecting purchase intention is limited as yet (Westberg and Pope, 2005). In order to fill the void of this area, this research attempts to discover the relationship of CaRM and consumer's purchase intention by the empirical case study.

Some researcher argued that customer's purchase intention is affected by the corporate image of a company involved in CaRM (Anselmsson and Johannson, 2007). Hajjat (2003) proposed that CaRM is more effective than ordinary marketing in terms of creating purchase intentions. It indicates that consumers tend to support the social cause and show the purchase intention ultimately. It is because in the CaRM condition, individuals believed that giving away a small fraction of the price to social cause fulfills their philanthropic and altruistic feelings. However, in ordinary marketing individuals think these activities are the tool of company to increase sales. As a consequence, consumer's purchase intention in CaRM condition is higher than the counterpart's in the ordinary marketing condition. Hajjat (2003) also suggested that the effectiveness is associated with the size of donation. It stated that consumers have no strong purchase intention when the donation size is small because they believe that the company is using the cause for egoistic rather than altruistic motives. This research also explores the CaRM effectiveness in influencing the consumer's purchase intention and in the research process consumers have been informed about the donation scheme.

Some researchers also investigated the impact of different CaRM forms toward consumer's purchase intention (Olsen, Pracejus, and Brown, 2003). They suggested that consumers show stronger purchase intention when company adopt donation instead of a percentage of profit or price. They claimed that it is due to consumer's perception of the value that they believe an absolute amount donation is more practical. However, the case in this research adopts the percentage of profit and price. According to the research, the conclusion of previous studies may not be applied in this research.

Furthermore, according to Yang and Li (2007), different methods employed by a company for CaRM have different effects on purchase intention. They found that CaRM has more significant influence than sponsorship on consumer's purchase intention. In addition, they discovered that purchase intention is also affected by the level of congruence which is between the social cause and the company itself. It means if the congruence is in high level, consumers have stronger purchase intention. This research examines the congruence of issue and the company image as well. In order to evaluate the strength of the purchase intention, the measurement of the congruence is made by the consumer's perspective.

In addition, Bigné-Alcañiz et al (2010) found that positive purchase intention is created when consumer feels more involved with the social cause during the CaRM campaign. In this case the involvement of consumers is reflected well because consumers have the opportunities to participate in the CaRM campaign form the start of the activity. Therefore, this research is to provide real case to support the conclusion.

However, CaRM campaign is complex and uncertain and marketing managers need to have the insight which can figure out whether and how CaRM enhances the purchase intention (Hajjat, 2003). In order to provide more theoretical support in this issue, this research dedicates to offering the solution on the complicated problems by conducting survey.

Research design and methodology

Introduction

This chapter is designed to discuss the objectives and aims of this study, and then propose the research hypotheses. The research design and philosophy will also be discussed. Methodology and data collection will also be covered. This section aims to help readers understand the research process and method more readily. Furthermore, this section will lead to the analysis of the data.

Research objectives

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between the CaRM and consumer's brand attitude and purchase intention in the UK market by the real case of The Innocent Drinks. As discussed in the literature review section, there are still many shortages of the preliminary research in this area. Therefore, this research proposed the main research objectives:

To identify the consumers' attitude towards cause-related marketing.

To investigate the relationship between the cause-related marketing and the brand attitude of consumers.

To examine the impact of cause-related marketing on the consumers' purchase intention.

Research hypotheses

According to the research objectives this study will be conducted based on these hypotheses:

H1: Consumers who have good impression on the cause-related marketing will have a more positive attitude toward the brand

H2: Consumers who have good impression on the cause-related marketing will have a stronger purchase intention for the product.

H3: The cause-related marketing performance will be a significant determinant of consumers' brand attitudes.

H4: The cause-related marketing performance will be a significant determinant of consumers' brand attitudes.

In this study, cause-related marketing is the independent variable and attitude to the strategy, change in brand attitude and purchase intention are the dependent variables. This study aims to experiment the causation of the independent variable and the dependent variable. Furthermore, the degree of the impact relationship will be examined in the study as well.

Research philosophy

A methodology has to be grounded in 'philosophy' which is a form of priori theoretical knowledge. 'Philosophy' is derived from and justified by previous knowledge. Therefore, 'methodology' has a close relationship with 'Philosophy' (Carr, 2006). This study uses the positivism as the research philosophy. This paradigm assumes a stable and measurable reality and observed in a systematic way to develop objective knowledge (facts). It presumes a social reality such as the causal relations between events and human behaviours. Knowledge of this reality (epistemology) is through quantitative method (Petty, Thomson and Stew, 2012). This study attempts to develop the useful knowledge of reality with the data at hand.

Positivism is a research paradigm which searches for objective truth and focuses on rational thought. This paradigm assumes that everything can be proved and known. Thus positivism is usually used to research on science. It supposes that everything can be generalised in to a law which seems to be the generalisation of natural science. In addition, positivism is usually combined with quantitative research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009)

This research aims to propose hypotheses by referring the existing theory. Then it tests the hypotheses by generalising the data at hand and analyses the results objectively. Ultimately, it creates a better understanding of the phenomena.

Research approach

This study uses a deductive approach which works from more general to specific. As a top-down approach, deductive approach proceeds from theory to data. It means deductive approach attempts to develop theory and test it through research (Pathirange, Amaratunga and Haign, 2008). This approach emphasizes on providing a better and more coherent framework than the previous theories. Thus, new theory usually will be established in deductive approach by analysing and testing hypotheses (Refsgaard and Henriken, 2004).

According to Robson (2002), the deductive approach goes through five stages: Accordingly, five sequential stages were introduced by Robson (2002) and deductive are progressed through these stages:

Deducing a hypothesis from the existing theory.

Expressing the hypothesis by stating the relationship between two variables.

Testing the hypothesis.

Analysing the results of hypothesis testing and examining whether it supports the existing theories or not.

If necessary, adjusting the theory with the findings.

This study follows the five stages of deductive approach to examine the impact of CaRM on consumer's brand attitude and purchase intention. Hypotheses are deduced, tested and analysed.

Moreover, in deductive approach facts are usually measured by quantitative method (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009) so questionnaires are conducted in this research. According to previous studies, this is the most appropriate method to assess the relationship between two variables.

Research purpose

This study attempts to investigate and establish relationships between variables according to explanatory study. Explanatory study aims to research on testing the hypothesis by analysing the data so that it will establish the possible relationship (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009).

Methodology

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It is regarded as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. Methodology not only refers to the research method but also the logic behind the method which is explained why to use this method technique (Kothari, 2004). In order to test the hypothesis and examine the impact of the CaRM on other two variables, quantitative method is adopted.

Quantitative method is defined as the simple technique associated with the gathering, analysis, interpretation and presentation of numerical information. Quantitative method is originally related to the tenets of positivism. Therefore, quantitative method is conducted in and objective, value-free environment that researchers' value do not affect their research analysis and findings (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2009).

Quantitative method has many advantages. It is a good way to test the hypothesis and allows a large amount of data to be analysed efficiently (Anderson et al, 2009). Furthermore, it has the strong power to generalise the information and data through measurement of validity. It also controls the study in a rational manner according to the sampling method and research design (Muijs, 2011). Quantitative method has been the dominant and relatively unquestioned methodological orientation in the social and behavioural sciences for past centuries (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2009). Therefore, quantitative method is a reliable and appropriate method to investigate the relationship between the variables in this study.

Research design

This study adopts an independent sample design. The independent variable investigated in this study is the CaRM strategy, while the dependent variables are consumer's attitude toward the brand and their purchase intention.

Data collection

This study collects both primary and secondary data. Secondary data includes existing information such as past publications and literature. It is more convenience to collect secondary data because these data can be found in other researches such as official statistics, administrative records (Vartanian, 2011). The Innocent Company has its own official website which contains the background of the company and the campaign and the figures of the sales. Besides this internal channel of data mining, secondary data can be found in Key Note, Nexis and other pay-database which store massive information about different industries including healthy food and soft drink industries. Both of these internal and external channels will provide enough secondary data for this research. In this research a number of online and offline resources including the background of the case and the past empirical studies are gathered as the secondary data.

Secondary data is gathered to determine which primary data is needed. Primary data which are collected for the specific research problem at hand fits the research problem best. It is a costly and time-consuming strategy. However, primary data can make the research design and data collections tailor to the research question so that the study is coherent and the problems can be solved (Hox & Boeije, 2005).

This research adopts survey strategy to collect the primary data. Compared with traditional mail and telephone surveys, email survey can reduce the transmission costs and eliminate the paper costs (Parker, 1992). Besides, it will be more convenience to put data into computer software (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). Anonymity and confidentiality could be guaranteed through online survey so that respondents have more trust on it and the response rate will increase (Sheehan and Hoy, 1999). Ease of responding process will also benefit for the response rate because respondents can access and complete the questionnaires easily through Internet. Thus, primary data is collected through the Surveygizmo.com which is an online survey website.

Sampling population

This study aims to analyse the variables of CaRM, consumer's brand attitude and purchase intention based on the case of the Innocent Drinks in the UK market. Thus, the sampling population is consumers of all ages in the UK who bought the Innocent soft drinks before.

Sampling method

This research employs the convenience sampling as the sampling method. It is used differently across fields and is a matter of degree which perfectly random samples of people are virtually nonexistent (Twenge et al, 2008). It includes the entire population and is used to select a naturally occurring people group from the population the research need. With this method, samples are selected based on accessibility. Therefore, this method saves time and research budget (Chen, Shih and Yu, 2012). Convenience sampling is an appropriate method to examine the relationship.

Sample

In this research, a convenience sample of 240 participants is used that 123 are female and 117 are male of all ages. The samples will represent the whole population. Moreover, large sample size can result in avoiding more biases and obtaining more accurate results (Biau et al. 2008). For this study, 240 are an acceptable amount of participants to analyse.

Participants were recruited though online questionnaires. The link of the online questionnaires is sent to the participants through email. The participants are selected randomly from social media such as Facebook and Twitter and all of them are located in the UK. They are invited to complete the questionnaires which are presented in the email with link. 650 online surveys were sent out, of which 240 were completed and returned with the 37% response rate.

A cover letter which explains the research is given in the questionnaires to all the online participants. The cover letter includes the researcher's details for further enquiry (Appendix 1). It ensure the complete anonymity and participants are free to withdraw at any time.

Questionnaires

The questionnaire (Appendix 2) consists of four sections. Section one is designed to gather the basic information from participants such as the demographic questions and the frequency of every purchase in the Innocent Drinks. The demographic questions include the gender and age.

Section two starts with an introduction about the Big Knit campaign to give the participants an overview about the CaRM strategy the company adopted. Followed with it there is a four-item measurement that examined participants' perspectives toward the cause-related marketing. After reviewing the literature on CaRM, it was decided that certain elements should be included such as if the campaign is perceived good, if this kind of activity are liked by participants, if the campaign fit with the brand image and if the campaign fit with the product. These questions are required to complete and participants are asked the extent to which they agreed with each statement. The choices of answers are on a five-point Likert scale which ranges from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.

Section three is designed a four-item measurement which assesses participants' attitudes toward the brand after being informed with the social campaign. Questions in this section include how much participants like the brand, if participants are willing to introduce it to friends, the brand competency in participants' thoughts compared with their ideal drinks and if the brand image is good. Questions adopts the five-point scale, ranging from used to assess loyalty in the UK mobile phone market were adapted Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.

The section four includes the four-item measurement and it is used to evaluate participants' purchase intention about the Innocent Drinks. The participants are asked to finish the questions about if the CaRM campaign will enable them to purchase the product, if they will make a purchase when the company continues to do this kind of activities, if they will seek further information about the product and if they will actively search for the product in store. Participants need to evaluate the statements in the form of a five-point Likert scale which ranges from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.

Reliability and validity

Reliability and validity are two fundamental concepts for measurement in research. They refer to the authority of the sources. Reliability is concerned with the data collection techniques about whether they will obtain consistent findings. Validity refers to the measurement scale that whether it gathers the information effectively which is needed in the research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009).

Face validity is used to assess the validity of the questionnaires. Some marketing specialists from University of Exeter are invited to validate the questionnaires. Theses academics claim the content of the questionnaires is consistent with the validity. In addition, the design of the questionnaires relies on the preliminary literature on this area.

A pilot test is adopted to measure the reliability for questionnaire. Pilot test can help to discover and eliminate the potential biases or mistakes in understanding the questions (Malhotra and Birks, 2007). The questionnaires were sent to 30 university students from University of Southampton by the convenience sampling method. Pilot testing is aimed at eliminating potential problems in the wording or understanding of the questions.

Cronbach's Alpha is a measure of the internal consistency and test reliability technique that provide estimation of reliability in a single test. Cronbach's alpha stands for the average value of the reliability coefficient and it ranges between 0 and 1. The larger Cronbach's alpha coefficient is, the better the internal consistency is (Sijtsma, 2009). George and Mallery (2003) verified that the value of the Cronbach's Alpha which is above the 0.7 is acceptable bottom line. In this test, Section two, three and four are all measured for the reliability. The questionnaires were examined to have good internal consistency in each section. The Cronbach alpha coefficients are as follows: Section two is 0.82, Section three is 0.75 and Section four is 0.78. The results indicates that the questionnaires are reliable.

Data analysis

Data is coded and stored in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 19 after collection. The data is also analysed in this computer statistical software. All the data analysis results will come from the SPSS.

Data Analysis

Introduction

This chapter discusses the data analysis. The descriptive statistics will are presented first. Then a frequency analysis of the CaRM performance, brand attitude and purchase intention are demonstrated. Finally, each hypothesis about the relationship of CaRM, brand attitude and purchase intention are tested by analysing the data.

Descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics are presented in the following section by tables and graphs so that it present answers of the participants clearly.

Gender

Figure 1: Gender Percentages Table 1: Gender Distribution

Gender N=240 (%)

Male 117 (48.7%)

Female 123 (51.3%)

Total 240 (100%)

Figure 1 and Table 1 demonstrate the almost equal distribution of male an female in this study, with 117 male participants (48.7%) and 123 female participants (51.3%).

Age

Figure 2: Age Groups Table 2: Age Distribution

Age N=240 (%)

Under 18 20 (8.3%)

18-24 52 (21.7%)

25-34 68 (28.3%)

35-44 51 (21.3%)

45-54 27 (11.3%)

55+ 22 (9.2%)

Total 240 (100%)

As the Figure 2 and Table 2 show, there are six age groups divided for this study: under 18 year olds, 18-24 year olds, 25-34 year olds, 35-44 year olds, 45-54 year olds and above 55 year olds. There are 20 participants (8.3%) in the youngest group. The sizes of 45-55 group and the above-55 group are 27 (11.3%) and 22 (9.2%) participants respectively. The 18-24 age group consists of 52 participants (21.7%) and the 35-44 group is made up of 51 participants (21.3%). The 25-34 group is comprised of 68 participants (28.3%). Therefore, the majority of participants are aged between 25-34 and the distribution of age is good.

Purchase frequency of The Innocent products

Figure 3: Frequency Percentage Table 3: Purchase Frequency Distribution

Purchase frequency N=240 (%)

Twice or more in a week 34 (14.2%)

Once in a week 72 (30%)

Once in two weeks 53 (22.1%)

Once in a month 36 (15%)

Less than once in a month 45 (18.8%)

Total 240 (100%)

Figure 3 and Table 3 demonstrate the frequency of participants' purchase on the Innocent products. The majority of participants purchase the Innocent once in a week with the size of 72 (30%) while 34 participants (14.2%) buy the products twice or more in a week. There are 45 participants (18.8%) claiming they buy the products less than once in a month. The once-in-a-month group and once-in-two-weeks group consist of 36 participants (15%) and 53 participants (22.1%) respectively.

CaRM frequency analysis

Table 4: CaRM Frequency Analysis

Question

Response

N=240 (%)

Mean score

I think this is a good campaign.

1.Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

3 (1.3%)

4 (1.7%)

45 (18.8%)

114 (47.5%)

74 (30.8%)

4.05

I like this campaign.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

3 (1.3%)

10 (4.2%)

64 (26.7%)

109 (45.4%)

54 (22.5%)

3.84

This campaign fits the brand of the company well.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

1 (0.4%)

7 (2.9%)

65 (27.1%)

106 (44.2%)

61 (25.4%)

3.91

This campaign fits the products of the company well.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

3 (1.3%)

9 (3.8%)

70 (29.2%)

98 (40.8%)

60 (25.0%)

3.85

Total

240 (100%)

3.91

Table 4 demonstrates participants' answers to the CaRM questionnaire. According to this table, consumers evaluate the Big Knit campaign as a good marketing campaign (question 1). In addition, from consumers point of view, the campaign fits the brand of company very well (question 3). Moreover, the majority of people (67.9%) like the Big Knit campaign. All the results indicate the performance of the CaRM campaign is relatively good.

The overall CaRM levels are classified into three dimensions: low = 1-2, medium = 3 and high = 4-5. The mean for the overall CaRM score is 3.91 which is extremely close to 4. Thus, it reflects the performance of the Big Knit campaign is more than the medium level and not particularly high.

Figure 4 shows the frequency of the CaRM score which ranges from a low of 10 to a high of 20. The mean overall CaRM level is 15.72 (Std. Dev. = 1.982).

Figure 4: Distribution of CaRM Score

Brand attitude frequency analysis

Table 5: Brand Attitude Frequency Analysis

Question

Response

N=240 (%)

Mean score

I like the Innocent brand.

1.Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

1 (0.4%)

2 (0.8%)

37 (15.4%)

151 (62.9%)

49 (20.4%)

4.02

I will introduce and share the brand with my friends.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

1 (0.4%)

5 (2.1%)

80 (33.3%)

130 (54.2%)

24 (10%)

3.71

Compared to my ideal soft drink, the Innocent Drinks has the brand competency.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

1 (0.4%)

4 (1.7%)

73 (30.4%)

133 (55.4%)

29 (12.1%)

3.77

The Innocent Drinks has a good brand image.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

1 (0.4%)

1 (0.4%)

64 (26.7%)

119 (49.6%)

55 (22.9%)

3.94

Total

240 (100%)

3.86

Table 5 illustrates participants' answers to the brand attitude questionnaire. According to this table, 83.3% people have a favourable attitude toward the Innocent brand (question 1). Most of the participants think the Innocent has a strong brand image and believe the brand is competitive among the rivals (question 4 and question 3). 154 participants tend to introduce the brand to their friends. All the figures indicate the consumers have a relatively high level of brand attitude toward the Innocent Drinks.

As with CaRM score, the overall brand attitudes are sorted into three degrees, showing low = 1-2, medium = 3 and high = 4-5. The mean for the overall brand attitude score is 3.86. It implies the brand attitude score is neither extremely low nor high but borders between medium and high levels.

Figure 4 demonstrates the frequency of the brand attitude score, ranging from a low of 10 to a high of 20. The mean overall brand attitude level is 15.85 (Std. Dev. = 1.999).

Figure 5: Distribution of Brand Attitude Score

Purchase intention frequency analysis

Table 6: Purchase Intention Frequency Analysis

Question

Response

N=240 (%)

Mean score

This campaign will enable me to buy the products.

1.Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

1 (0.4%)

2 (0.8%)

58 (24.2%)

116 (48.3%)

63 (26.3%)

3.99

If the company continues to do this campaign, I will prefer to buy the products.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

1 (0.4%)

18 (7.5%)

25 (10.4%)

132 (55.0%)

64 (26.7%)

4.00

I will search further relevant information about this products and campaign.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

1 (0.4%)

21 (8.8%)

30 (12.5%)

125 (52.1%)

63 (26.3%)

3.95

I will seek for the products when I buy the drinks in store next time.

1. Strongly Disagree

2. Disagree

3. Neutral

4. Agree

5. Strongly Agree

4 (1.7%)

10 (4.2%)

64 (26.7%)

109 (45.4%)

53 (22.1%)

3.82

Total

240 (100%)

3.94

Table 6 shows answers of all participants on purchase intention questionnaire. A large proportion of participants tend to buy the Innocent products because of the Big Knit campaign (question 1). They claimed that if the company continu