Is Cause-related Marketing Green-Washing?

Cause-related marketing (CrM) is an increasingly applied marketing tool where the product purchase leads to a target-oriented donation regarding a designated cause promoted on the product by label. In a recent campaign Germanys coffee producer Dallmayr cooperates with the NGO Menschen fr Menschen. The campaign promotes that per sold package of coffee five trees are planted in Ethiopia. In this regard, the campaign is close to a regular target oriented donation and comparable to Fair Trade (FT) in terms of the prevention of soil degradation and therefore sustainable production methods. In order to maintain the success of CrM it is of great importance to avoid the impression that CrM is green-washing (see e.g. Varadarajan and Menon 1988). So far, only few studies examined the effect of CrM activities on consumers attitudes and purchase behaviour. Against this background, (i) we investigate whether German consumers think CrM is green-washing and (ii) whether they differentiate between CrM and traditional donations or the purchase of FT products. In this regard, we conducted a consumer survey (n=112) in2009 in Germany. Participants were asked about their evaluation of CrM. The results indicate that most consumers perceive CrM not as green-washing and that they distinguish CrM from FT and donations. An ordered logit model reveals that attitudes more than socio-demographics, consumption patterns and charitable behaviour influence the evaluation of CrM is green-washing. A higher level of education leads to a more differentiated opinion with the result that CrM is seen rather critical. Also, a high consumption of a product leads to mistrust in the marketing strategy