Purpose

This study aims to investigate how gratitude, as compared to pride, can leverage the effectiveness of cause-related marketing, particularly a donation-based promotion. Drawing upon the appraisal tendency framework, this study establishes the underlying process driving these emotion effects. It also examines the moderating role of product type (hedonic vs utilitarian).

Design/methodology/approach

Five studies are conducted to test the predictions. Importantly, this study examines the predicted emotion effects across different sources of affect (dispositional, incidental and integral), different subject populations (students and Amazon Mechanical Turk panel) and different product categories (water bottle, chocolate and printer), leading to robust and generalizable findings.

Findings

Results show that gratitude (vs pride) increases the likelihood of purchasing a product with a donation-based promotion. This effect is mediated by gratitude’s other-responsibility appraisal and, in turn, increased reciprocity concerns (a serial mediation). Further, this study finds that how the gratitude (vs pride) effect is attenuated when the product is hedonic (but not utilitarian) in nature.

Research limitations implications

Past study on emotion and cause-related marketing has emphasized the role of negative emotions such as guilt. This study provides empirical evidence on the potential benefit of using positive emotions such as gratitude in cause-related marketing.

Practical implications

The implications of this study can benefit marketers by highlighting the use of gratitude appeals in their cause-related marketing campaigns.

Originality/value

The findings of the present research are significant because they highlight the potential role of a discrete positive emotion – gratitude – in leveraging the effectiveness of cause-related marketing and establish the underlying process driving this effect.

中文翻译：

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感恩（vs 骄傲）对事业相关营销有效性的影响

目的

本研究旨在调查与骄傲相比，感恩如何利用公益营销的有效性，尤其是基于捐赠的促销活动。本研究利用评价倾向框架，建立了驱动这些情绪影响的潜在过程。它还检查了产品类型（享乐与功利）的调节作用。

设计/方法/方法

进行了五项研究来检验这些预测。重要的是，这项研究检查了不同影响源（倾向性、偶然性和整体性）、不同受试者群体（学生和 Amazon Mechanical Turk 小组）和不同产品类别（水瓶、巧克力和打印机）的预测情绪影响，从而得出稳健和可概括的发现。

发现

结果表明，感恩（vs 骄傲）增加了通过捐赠促销购买产品的可能性。这种效果是由感恩的其他责任评估所调节的，反过来，互惠问题的增加（连续调解）。此外，这项研究发现，当产品本质上是享乐（但不是功利）时，感恩（vs 骄傲）效应如何减弱。

研究局限性影响

过去对情绪和事业相关营销的研究强调了负情绪的作用，如内疚。本研究为在公益营销中使用感恩等积极情绪的潜在益处提供了经验证据。

实际影响

这项研究的意义可以通过强调在与事业相关的营销活动中使用感恩呼吁来使营销人员受益。

原创性/价值

本研究的发现意义重大，因为它们强调了一种离散的积极情绪——感恩——在利用因果相关营销的有效性并建立驱动这种效果的潜在过程中的潜在作用。