The Inverse Power of Praise: How Pro-Social Marketing Messages Influence Consumer Behavior

Each year companies spend billions of dollars on corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs (Luo and Bhattacharya 2009) and highlight these activities in their advertisements to establish a positive perception in their customers’ minds. Past research has mainly investigated how socially responsible initiatives and/or corporate social marketing (CSM) affect consumers’ attitudes, behaviors, and decisions connected to the company (Lichtenstein, Drumwright, and Braig 2004; Sen and Bhattacharya 2001). However, little is known about how these messages and their framing affect consumer behavior in general. Companies can use different framings for their CSM messages. Most companies describe their support of social and environmental causes and ask consumers for their help. One the other hand, some companies such as Starbucks choose another direction and give credit to their customers and praise them for their help in support of the company’s environmental causes: “You are a pioneer in using recycled cups. Everything we do, you do. Your business lets Starbucks do business in a way that’s better for the planet. Like leading the way in cup technology with the first U.S. hot cups made with 10% post-consumer recycled fiber, and cup sleeves that use 60%. Starbucks is working on a cup that’s 100% recyclable too, it’s what we can do, because of what you do. Good for you.” We call the framing of this message a customer-praise framing; and the framing of a message, in which a company acknowledges its support of social and environmental causes without praising its customers directly, a company-praise framing.