A presentation for the International Conference on Marketing - Challenging Environment - Colombo, Sri Lanka, February, 2013.

1. Cause Marketing
An Approach Towards Corporate Social Responsibility
In Bulgaria

2. Presentation Overview
• Introduction
• Purpose of the Paper
• Methodology
• Findings
• Conclusion
• Future Research Suggestions

3. Introduction
• Cause marketing represents cause-specificity of CSR.
• It can effectively target many social and environmental issues while delivering
positive corporate image, strengthening brand affiliation and enlarging
market shares.
• According to the 2012 Edelman goodpurpose® nearly half (47 percent) of
consumers have bought a brand at least monthly that supports a cause.

4. Purpose of the Paper
The purpose of this paper is to identify the characteristics of
cause marketing as an approach towards corporate social
responsibility in companies operating in Bulgaria.

5. Methodology
• A sample of 50 randomly selected companies using cause marketing.
• Categorization of the cause marketing practices (main topics).
• Examine the types of collaboration between the surveyed companies and
non-profit organizations.
• Identifying the marketing mix elements used in cause-related marketing
campaigns.

6. Findings – Main Topics
• Ecology – preservation of nature.
• Health – prevention of diseases.
• Children – special care, preventing abuse, happy childhood.
• Education – equal opportunities for education, minorities, lifelong learning, etc.
• Orphans – prevention, providing shelter, adoption.
• Sport – different sports, sport activities among the society.
• Art – supporting arts and culture, talented people.
• People with disabilities – improving the living space, offering job opportunities, etc.

7. Findings – Collaboration Types
• For each sold product the company donates a certain amount of money.
• A percentage of the total sales of a product is spend on charity.
• The profit or part of it is donated.
• Developing a strong relation between the product, its usage
and the supported cause.
• Administering a company proposed cause.

8. Findings – Marketing Mix
70%
60% 58%
50%
50% 44%
40%
30% 24%
20%
10%
0%
Price Product Place Promotion

9. Conclusion
• The partnership between business and non-profit organizations evolves and covers
a wide range of activities.
• The main topics and types of cause-related marketing campaigns, which tend to
expand rapidly.
• The surveyed companies utilize the elements of the marketing mix, but need more
sophistication in its use.
• The relation between cause marketing and corporate social responsibility still
concerns only the product and only half of the companies use this as a CSR
approach.

10. Future Research Suggestions
• Examining customer responsiveness to cause marketing campaigns.
• Studying the specifics of cause-related marketing by types of industry.
• Examining its impact on key performance indicators.

11. Petar Petrov, PHD student
E-mail: p.k.petrov@ue-varna.bg
ICOM 2013 Marina Kamenova-Timareva, PHD student
February the 19-20th, 2013 E-mail: manikam23@abv.bg