Cause-related marketing model in the dairy food industry based on the grounded theory

Cause-related marketing is a new marketing strategy for fulfilling the social responsibility of companies, which pays attention to the social needs of altruism and personal needs. This marketing model can be used well in markets with intense competition and towards saturation, such as the food industry, which leads to competitive advantages in the non-price competition of companies, brand differentiation, and obtaining a suitable competitive position for the companies' products. Therefore, this study aimed to design a cause-related marketing model in the dairy food industry and identify parameters and components by interviewing academic and industry experts using the qualitative analysis method. The study population included academic experts and senior managers of the dairy food industry in ۱۲ people until theoretical saturation. A semi-structured interview and the Delphi method were used to collect data, which were analyzed in MAXQDA software. Accordingly, ۱۶ components were extracted from four main components of dimensions. Dimensions related to the company (with dimensions; company’s marketing mix; company’s resources and capabilities; campaign execution, the perspective of the company’s managers and stakeholders), dimensions related to customers (with dimensions; people’s beliefs, people’s attitudes; people’s values, demographic factors, motivation social factors and the individual’s experience and awareness), dimensions related to the campaign (with dimensions; method of aid or cause-related activity, place of support or cause-related activity, validity and importance and urgency of the cause-related campaign) and cause-related marketing results (with components of financial and non-financial results) were classified. In the end, a conceptual model was presented.

Keywords:

cause-related marketing , people’s attitude , marketing mix , benevolent campaign , the dairy industry