공익연계 마케팅에서 감정 소구방법이 소비자 태도에 미치는 차별적 영향: 공감의 매개효과와 도덕적 정체성의 조절효과를 중심으로

Recently, as the customers’ ethical consumption based on ethical value rather than economic value is dominated, many firms are interested in cause related marketing(CRM) as a new concept of customer social relationship(CSR) strategy. CRM is that whenever consumers purchase a product, firms give a certain amount of money to a charity organization. While the existing research have focused on what kind of CRM is developed, this study is to analyze the psychological mechanism of consumers affected by two alternative type of emotional appeals(guilt and warmth) of a CRM program. Specifically, the authors present the postulated “emotional appeals-empathy- consumer attitude” chain. The authors empirically test the empathy’s mediating role in the emotional appeal-consumer attitude relationship and the moral identity’s moderating role in the emotional appeal-empathy relationship. Customer attitude as dependent variables is operationalized by advertisement attitude and product attitude. The results of this study are as follows. First, guilt appeal and warmth appeal positively influence both empathy and customer attitude. The results explain that both the guilt and warmth appeal are effective ways to as a alternative emotional appeal. Second, while the empathy’s partial mediating role is confirmed in the emotional appeals(both guilt and warmth)-advertisement attitude relationship, the empathy’s total mediating role is confirmed in the emotional appeals(both guilt and warmth)-product attitude relationship. Therefore, it has been confirmed that it is important to elicit sympathy from consumers in order to enhance product attitude unlike advertisement attitude in cause related marketing. Third, while the moral identity’s moderating role is confirmed in the guilt appeal-empathy relationship, the moral identity’s moderating role is not confirmed in the warmth appeal-empathy relationship. This has the same effect on both the internalization and symbolization of moral identity. While carrying out a guilt appeal in a cause related marketing campaign is likely to stimulate consumers' moral identity, it may be explained that it is not relevant when carrying out a warmth appeal. In conclusion part, the authors present theoretical implications in terms of the importance and role of CRM’s emotional appeals and practical implications about how to implement CRM campaign as follows. First, this study reviewed the psychological mechanisms of consumers who respond to theappeal method of cause related marketing. Second, it can be evaluated as an extension of recent relevant research by suggesting that different methods of appeal for cause related marketing are showing different effects. Third, it is evaluated as an extension of existing research by explaining the role of moral identity as a moderating variable in guilt appeal and empathy in the cause related marketing campaign. Fourth, consumer-centric approach is needed to ensure the success of the cause related marketing campaign and company should consider methods to elicit sympathy from consumers. Fifth, it is necessary to consider the discriminatory impact on advertising attitude and product attitude in determining campaign appeal method in order to enhance the performance of cause related marketing. Lastly, the limitations and future research are suggested.