The impact of the alliance on the partners: A look at cause-brand alliances

Partnering charitable causes with brands has become a common practice for many marketing programs; it is referred to strategically as cause-related marketing. Although there is the perception that both partners benefit from the alliance, research has focused primarily on the benefits to the brand. Using Attitude Accessibility, Congruity, and Information Integration Theories, this study empirically tests a model to evaluate the impact of cause-brand alliances on subsequent attitudes toward both partners. The results of the study (n = 463) support the assumption that attitudes toward both the cause and the brand can be enhanced as a consequence of an alliance if perceptions of the alliance are favorable. Furthermore, the cause appears to benefit from the alliance to a greater extent than the brand. The study supports the notions that the fit between partners plays a pivotal role in consumer acceptance of the alliance as plausible and that familiarity with the cause moderates the effectiveness of the alliance. These results represent a necessary step in developing a theoretical model to explain the effects of a cause-brand alliance on both partners. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.