Cause marketing has become so commonplace that simply aligning with a cause and making monetary donations is no longer enough to impress consumers. Campaigns must be genuine and innovative to make an impact. Some demographic groups are more receptive than others to cause marketing, such as Millennials and parents of children younger than 18.

Companies must consider how they will overcome skepticism, cause-fatigue, and disinterest in their cause marketing initiatives.

This report builds on the analysis presented in Mintel’s Cause Marketing – US, August 2011, as well as the August 2007 report of the same title. Readers may also be interested in Mintel’s Attitudes Toward Corporate Social Responsibility – US, September 2012.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel has used the following definitions:

Cause marketing is when a company joins forces with a charity/nonprofit organization for a mutually beneficial outcome. Namely, the company benefits from being viewed as philanthropic and the charity benefits from increased attention to the cause it supports and often donations from the company and its customers.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through Lightspeed GMI to explore consumer attitudes and behaviors around cause marketing. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in September 2014 among a sample of 2,000 adults aged 18+ with access to the internet.

Mintel selects survey respondents by gender, age, household income, and region so that they are proportionally representative of the US adult population using the internet. Mintel also slightly over-samples, relative to the population, respondents that are Hispanic or Black to ensure an adequate representation of these groups in our survey results and to allow for more precise parameter estimates from our reported findings. Please note that our surveys are conducted online and in English only. Hispanics who are not online and/or do not speak English are not included in our survey results.

While race and Hispanic origin are separate demographic characteristics, Mintel often compares them to each other. Please note that the responses for race (White, Black, Asian, Native American, or other race) will overlap those that also are Hispanic, because Hispanics can be of any race.

In addition to quantitative consumer research, Mintel also conducted an online discussion group among a demographically mixed group of adults aged 18+. This discussion group was asynchronous (ie not run in real time), functioning like a blog or bulletin board, with questions remaining posted for a predetermined period of time. This method allows participants to respond reflectively, at their leisure, or to log off to think about any issues raised, and return later to respond. Participants were recruited from GMI’s online consumer panel with responses collected in September 2014. Relevant quotes are included as stated. However, Mintel has corrected typos and grammatical errors prior to publishing.

Mintel’s Comperemedia platform has been used to provide examples of cause marketing.

Mintel Comperemedia is a searchable competitive database tracking direct mail, print and online advertising in the US and Canada, as well as email in the US. Comperemedia tracks information across nine sectors: Banking, Credit Card, Investments, Insurance, Mortgage and Loan, Telecom, Travel and Leisure, Retail, and Automotive.

For more information, please contact Account Services Management at 312.450.6353 or www.mintel.com.

The following is a list of abbreviations used in this report:

Generations are discussed within this report, and they are defined as:

* also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers