Does Skepticism Influence Consumers Intention to Purchase Cause-related Products?
Dr. Marhana M. Anuar, Dr. Khatijah Omar, Prof. Dr. Osman Mohamad

Abstract
Cause-related marketing (CRM) is becoming more and more popular among companies in emerging markets. Through CRM, companies donate to a charity each time a consumer purchase a specific product. Because a donation to a cause is linked with a purchase of a product, this type of marketing strategy may be viewed with skepticism by consumers. Skepticism may hinder the success of CRM. Using a survey method this study examined whether consumers are skeptical or not toward CRM. In addition, this study also examined the effect of consumer skepticism on consumer intention to purchase CRM’s product. The results show that in general consumers skepticism level fall in the middle range. Using an independent sample T-test the effect of high skepticism versus low skepticism on purchase intention was measured. The results show that there is no significant difference on purchase intention between the high and the low consumer skepticism toward CRM. Considering the widespread of CRM in Malaysia, the results of this study suggest that the future of CRM is promising in Malaysia.

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