The Effects of Strategic and Tactical Cause-Related Marketing on Consumers' Brand Loyalty

Purpose – the first objective was to find out to what extent consumers reveal an effect of strategic and tactical cause-related marketing on brand loyalty. Second, the article seeks to assess the moderating role of consumer involvement with a product on the relationship between cause-related marketing and brand loyalty.design/methodology/approach – an experimental design with 240 participants was used.findings – the results show that consumers perceive a significantly enhanced level of brand loyalty as a result of strategic cause-related marketing as long as the firm has a long-term commitment to this campaign and the campaign is related to a low involvement product. Consumers do not exhibit a significant impact of tactical cause-related marketing campaigns – whether related to high or low involvement products – on brand loyalty.research limitations/implications – first, all respondents were students from a western european university. Second, the experiment relied on imaginary storyboards. Third, the program dimensions were not manipulated separately.practical implications – if companies intend to increase brand loyalty through crm they should set up long-lasting crm campaigns linked to the product that shows the lowest level of consumer involvement.originality/value – the added value of this paper is the link between cause-related marketing programs and brand loyalty. Moreover, a distinction is explicitly made between tactical and strategic crm programs.