Cause-related Marketing: The Influence of the fit among partners, brands and cause

The combination of efforts of Profit-Organizations and Non-Profit-Organizations to benefit from a collaboration has gained increased attention throughout the last couple of years. Events such as the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the Enron scandal or the fraudulent participation of investment banks in the most recent financial crisis have fueled the discussion of ethical codes of conduct for corporations, their social responsibility in society and thus their social commitment. The contribution of business entities in social causes made them consider their possibilities to not only act socially responsible, but profitable at the same time. This called marketers to action, designing a new type of marketing, CRM, that would highlight a company’s willingness to do good, advance the company’s reputable image, enhance customer retention and increase sales.The aim of this study is the presentation of the current state of research on the impact of fit on the success of CRM. A further objective is the systematic elaboration of empirical studies to identify interactions on the fit and draw conclusions about possible effects on the success of CRM campaigns.