Cause related marketing - an Indian overview

Abstract

The Indian market has witnessed all types of organizations ranging from national to multinational to regional as well as local adopting cause related marketing (CRM) practice since the late nineties. They started partnering with non-profit organizations linking brands to social cause. The main focus of this study was to provide insights about the extent and nature of CRM prevalent in the Indian market. This study was motivated by the fact that very little data pertaining to CRM practices in India was available in the academic as well as non-academic sources. This study examined various CRM initiatives that were announced during 1999 to 2012. These were identified by conducting an internet search using key word as well as visiting company and partnering organizations websites. One newspaper and one business magazine for those years were scanned. Only those CRM activities were included which satisfied definitions provided by Varadarajan and Menon (1988) or Kotler and Lee (2005) These initiatives were analyzed by classifying them on a variety of parameters like type of company, type of partnering organization, nature of cause, type of brand etc. 142 initiatives were recorded over 14 years. Very few regional and local organizations seem to have adopted using CRM as a marketing practice. Non-durable essential brand like salt and tea were found to be using CRM more than other categories. More work in this area which investigates consumer insights about CRM would be enhance effectiveness of such programs.