Cause Marketing Survey: Most Have Bought Products That Support Causes

During October, many businesses and organizations around the country don pink décor and even offer special products or fundraisers in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There are plenty of other causes that businesses support through the rest of the year as well. So how do consumers respond to this type of cause marketing? Are they more likely to support companies because of particular causes, or do they ever see these efforts as insincere?

Cause Marketing

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 18% of respondents said they are definitely more likely to support companies involved in different causes. 22% said they would probably be more likely to support companies that get involved in causes. 42% of consumers said they would be more likely to support brands involved in causes, depending on what the causes are. 16% said they would probably not be more likely to support brands involved with different causes. And 3% said they would definitely not be more likely to support brands involved with causes.

Cause Results

Overall, 56% of consumers said they have bought a product specifically because the proceeds went to a good cause or the brand supported a particular cause. Women were 5% more likely to have bought products that support causes. And parents were 6% more likely to buy these types of products.49% of respondents said they definitely wish more brands would support causes. 36% said they somewhat wish more brands would get involved with different causes. And just 15% said they don’t wish more brands would get involved with causes.

Cause Sincerity

Only 9% of consumers said they always research how the brands they support actually contribute to their causes, or where any funds they’ve raised go. 37% said that they sometimes do research about brands involved with causes. And 55% said they never research.10% of respondents said they think cause marketing campaigns are always sincere. 28% said they think they are sincere most of the time. 41% said they think cause marketing campaigns are insincere about half the time. 15% said they think cause marketing campaigns are insincere or gimmicky most of the time. And 6% said they think cause marketing campaigns are always insincere or gimmicky.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Pink appliances for philanthropy from FlickrWhat do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on October 3, 2012 via AYTM’s online survey panel.