A SURVEY ON THE IMPACT OF CAUSE IMPORTANCE AND GENDER ON CONSUMERS’ PURCHASING INTENTION IN CAUSE-RELATED MARKETING: A CASE STUDY AMONG CUSTOMERS OF IRANIAN CHAIN STORES

In today’s fiercely competitive world, cause related marketing (CRM) plays an important role in business. It is seen as an effective way to build brands, create product awareness, revitalize corporate values and make corporate social responsibility and community involvement visible. It has proven to be an important marketing tool and offers valuable contributions inaddressing corporate needs in the context of societal issues and the related needs of charities and causes. cause importance which is one of the important elements of CRM’s structure has been suggested to significantly influence consumers’ purchasing intention towards CRM. However, the impacts of cause importance on consumers’ purchasing intention are inconsistent. In this light, this paper investigates (1) the effect of cause importance on consumers’ purchasing intention to CRM. (2) the moderating role of gender on the relationship between cause importance and consumers’ purchasing intention to CRM. The results indicate that cause importance hasa significant positive impact on Consumers’ Purchasing Intention, also gender has an influence on the consumers’ purchasing intention in CRM and The rate of cause importance is not the same for male and female consumers in CRM. Results of this study can be directly or indirectly used as guidelines for manufacturing companies or firms, service, advertising and commerce firms.