Developing a Model of Factors Affecting Participation in Cause-Related Marketing: A Case Study of Sport Products Consumers

Cause-related marketing (CRM) is an important tool in sports organizations to promote brand image and sell products. CRM faces a major challenge, and that is the skepticism about the program from sports consumers. Consumer pessimism is that the consumer is skeptical of the sports organization participating in the CRM program. Therefore, in this research, we tried to examine the factors related to participation in cause-related marketing and the role of sport consumers' attitudes in developing cause-related marketing.The statistical population was consumers of sports products in Sanandaj city. 420 sport consumers were randomly selected based on Morgan and Krejcie table as sample. The link of the questionnaire was sent to sports consumers in Sanandaj through telegram channels and members were asked to respond to the questionnaire through the link. SPSS16 and Amos 24 software were used for data analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses and to evaluate the overall fit of the research model. The results showed that familiarity with cause-related marketing, donation proximity, cause scope, message format and cause-brand fit all had a positive effect on attitude towards CRM and attitude had a positive effect on purchase intention. Therefore, observing the above criteria reduces doubts about these programs and has a positive effect on attitudes toward CRM and increases purchase intention in sports consumers, an issue that is very important in sports organizations.