Charity affiliation as a determinant of product purchase decisions
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420010344059 |
| Pages | 255-270 |
| Published date | 01 July 2000 |
| Date | 01 July 2000 |
| Author | Roger Bennett,Helen Gabriel |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Charity affiliation as a
determinant of product purchase
decisions
Roger Bennett
Reader, Department of Business Studies, London Guildhall
University, London, UK
Helen Gabriel
Lecturer, Department of Business Studies, London Guildhall
University, London, UK
Keywords Brands, Charities, Fund-raising, Image, Consumer behaviour
Abstract A number of large UK charities have extended their product sales into areas not
traditionally associated with non-profit organisations. Examines the connection between
a person's assessment of the quality and value for money of conventional charity goods
(T-shirts or coffee mugs for example) and their evaluation of the likely merits of new and
unfamiliar charity products (such as package holidays or household insurance). Emerges
that the former variable exerted a strong and statistically significant impact on the latter,
but that the form of the relationship was moderated by individual perceptions of the
degree of similarity between the old and new products. ``Similarity'' was defined in terms
of the skills and resources that consumers considered necessary in order to supply
various items and the charity's perceived capacity to employ these skills and abilities in
ways which generate fresh products of the same calibre as existing goods.
Introduction
The diversification of the fund-raising activities of large UK charities to the
sale of products unconnected with (or at best only marginally related to) their
primary philanthropic goals has constituted an important trend in non-profit
marketing during recent years (see for example Carter, 1995; 1997; Bawden,
1998; Dolon, 1998; Ramrayka, 1998; Rowe and Thorpe, 1998; Ramsay,
1999). Notable examples of the phenomenon are the flowers-by-post gift
service provided by the charity Age Concern; the personal equity plans,
insurance, savings and other financial services offered by Friends of the
Earth; telephone discount cards and branded music CDs sold by the Royal
British Legion; and the Family Planning Association's announcement in
January 1999 of its intention to market sex toys (Ramsay, 1999). Other
products currently offered by charitable organisations include mineral water
and confectionery, funeral plans, retail loyalty cards, sun tan lotion, and
alcoholic drinks. Moreover, increasing numbers of UK charities are now
active in the adventure holiday business, e.g. whitewater rafting in
Zimbabwe (SCOPE), bicycling in Egypt (MENCAP), and Himalayan
Trekking expeditions (WHIZZ-KIDZ). These trips might be described as
``sponsored events'', yet entail paid-for vacations. (The commercial travel
agencies have formally complained that they represent unfair business
competition (Ramrayka, 1998).)
For decades consumers have purchased certain types of product from
charities, typically via Christmas brochures and mail order catalogues
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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The research assistance of Yvonne Gleeson is gratefully acknowledged.
Diversified activities
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9 NO. 4 2000, pp. 255-270, #MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1061-0421 255
An executive summary for
managers and executive
readers can be found at the
end of this article
promoting relatively low value gifts, trinkets and memorabilia. The purpose
of the current paper is to assess the extent to which the charity image
attributes that customers attach to familiar products which they have always
bought from charities (Christmas cards, leather wallets, T-shirts or coffee
mugs for example) are transferred by them to fresh and different types of
product supplied by the same organisations. This is an important topic
because, if positive image attribute transference can be demonstrated, then
charities are presented with lucrative opportunities for supplying an
extensive range of widely disparate product categories under their own
names and charity images. Otherwise the best strategy for marketing these
unconnected items would (from a fund-raising point of view) be to use
different and more ``commercial'' brand names not necessarily anchored
against the philanthropic image of the supplying organisation. Accordingly,
the paper assesses the images that customers hold about conventional charity
goods and employs these evaluations to explore the process of image transfer
from familiar charity products (i.e. those previously and regularly
experienced) to fresh products offered by charities. Specifically, it tests the
hypothesis that the degree to which a customer perceives familiar and fresh
charity products to be ``similar'' (in relation to the business and other skills
needed to supply them and their capacity to provide the same value for
money) exerts a significant influence on the evaluation of new and
unconventional charity items.
Attitudes towards charity branded products
Charities' observed activities generate public knowledge, feelings and
beliefs about them that help create an overall organisational image (McLean,
1998). Thus, an individual's familiarity with charities (gained perhaps via
personal experience of their work or through exposure to their marketing
communications or general media coverage of their operations) will
contribute to the formation of an image of charities which might be based on
pre-assumed philanthropic and altruistic traits powerful enough to influence
buyer behaviour (Park and Lessig, 1985; Tapp, 1996). Crucially, it is known
that consumers commonly employ heuristics (i.e. mental ``short cuts'') to
handle complex information processing tasks in order to lighten their
cognitive workloads (see Taylor et al., 1994, pp. 87-91). Hence they often
focus on just one or two aspects of a product when assessing its value (Alba
and Hutchinson, 1987). It follows that an item branded under the name of a
well known charity might be associated in consumers' minds with beliefs
about charitable attributes which influence their product evaluations (Park et
al., 1991; Meech, 1996). Thus, to the extent that product knowledge is
retained by consumers as sets of associations (see Lynch and Scrull, 1982;
Fiske and Taylor, 1984), a good's charity affiliation could represent an
important focal point around which mental associations revolve. In
particular, an auspicious charity image could generate ``halo effects'' vis-aÁ-
vis the supply of charity branded items, i.e. customers who lack detailed
knowledge about product attributes might assume that because charities are
``worthy'' organisations then the goods they sell must be sound, reliable, and
excellent value for money. Hence the cue of a charity affiliation may be used
as a predictor of product quality, acceptability, etc. when more explicit
information is missing (cf. Lee and Lou, 1995).
As well as affecting customer assessments of a charity's existing products
(tableware for example) the charity's image might be transferable to
influence the evaluation of new and entirely different charity products, such
as holidays or financial services. Arguably, however, customers like to
Organisational change
256 JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9 NO. 4 2000
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