BUILDING COMMITMENT IN THE CHARITY SECTOR
ABSTRACT
The paper introduces a model of brand community development that is extended to the nonprofit sector; a sector that has just recently begun to embrace relationship marketing. It is believed that brand communities represent a unique form of relationship marketing, with benefits that are particularly compelling for nonprofits. Indeed, the paper reveals that many of the characteristics of brand communities already exist to some extent within the culture and/or fundraising efforts of charitable organizations. The article offers a number of research propositions for research into the influence of brand community markers and mechanisms upon donor and volunteer support of charities.
INTRODUCTION
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Blanche DuBois
Based upon recent activity in nonprofit sector journals and publications, it is apparent that this sector has moved beyond marketing techniques and finally begun to embrace the marketing concept. Although slow to discover relationship marketing and its associated benefits of closer, longer term relationships with patrons, volunteers and perhaps most importantly donors, the nonprofit sector seems poised for full-scale conversion to a market orientation. For example, in the past few years, articles focused on: the marketing concept (Liao, Foreman and Sargeant 2001), donor lifetime value (Sargeant 2001a) and donor loyalty (Sargeant 2001b) have begun to appear in the academic fundraising and voluntary sector literature. The practitioner literature has been a bit quicker to embrace the relationship marketing concept and is currently awash with articles related to applications of customer relationship marketing (CRM), database marketing, relationship marketing, direct response marketing, fundraising marketing,
References: Aaker, David (1994), “Building a Brand: The Saturn Story,” California Management Review, 36 (2), 114. Ashforth, Blake and Fred Mael (1989), “Social Identity Theory and the Organization,” Academy of Management Review, 14 (1), 20 ' 39. Association Management (1996), “Study of Donor Attitudes and Behaviors,” July, 25. Barone, Michael, Anthony Miyazaki and Kimberly Taylor (2000), “The Influence of Cause-Related Marketing on Consumer Choice: Does One Good Turn Deserve Another?” Academy of Marketing Science Journal, 28 (2), 248 ' 262. Bendapudi, Neeli, Surendra Singh and Venkat Bendapudi (1996), “Enhancing Helping Behavior: An Integrative Framework For Promotion Planning,” Journal Of Marketing, 60 (3), 33-49. Bennett, Roger and Helen Gabriel (2000), “Charity Affiliation as A Determinant of Product Purchase Decisions,” Journal of Product and Brand Management, 9 (4), 255-270. Bhattacharya, C.B. (1998), “When Customers Are Members: Customer Retention In Paid Membership Contexts,” Academy of Marketing Science Journal, 26 (1), 31 ' 44. Bhattacharya, C.B. and Kimberly Elsbach (2002), “Us versus Them: The Roles of Organizational Identification and Disidentification in Social Marketing Initiatives,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 21 (1), 26 ' 36. Bhattacharya, C.B., Hayagreeva Rao and Mary Ann Glynn (1995), “Understanding the Bond of Identification: An Investigation of its Correlates Among Art Museum Members,” Journal of Marketing, 59 (4), 46-57. Blair, Kathy (1999), “Primate’s Fund Director Challenges World Vision’s Style of Aid, Ads in Journal,” Anglican Journal, November. Boorstin, Daniel (1973), The Americans: The Democratic Experience, New York: Random House. Canadian Fundraiser (2002), “Customer Relationship Management,” December 31, Article 5 of 12. Clotfelter, Charles (2001), “Who are the Alumni Donors? Giving by Two Generations of Alumni from Selective Colleges,” Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 12 (2), 119 ' 138. File, Karen and Russ Prince (1998), “Cause Related Marketing and Corporate Philanthropy in the Privately Held Enterprise,” Journal of Business Ethics, 17 (14), 1529 ' 1539. Fisher, Robert J. and David Ackerman (1998), “The Effects of Recognition and Group Need on Volunteerism: A Social Norm Perspective,” Journal of Consumer Research, 25 (December), 262-275. Fund Raising Management (1999a), “Toward 2000 and Beyond: Charitable and Social Change Giving in the New Millennium ' Part I,” 30 (3), 28 ' 30. Fund Raising Management (1999b), “Toward 2000 and Beyond: Charitable and Social Change Giving in the New Millennium ' Part II,” 30 (4), 24 ' 28. Fund Raising Management (1999c), “Toward 2000 and Beyond: Charitable and Social Change Giving in the New Millennium ' Part III,” 30 (5), 32 ' 36. Guy, Bonnie, and Wesley Patton (1988), “The Marketing of Altruistic Causes: Understanding Why People Help,” Journal of Services Marketing, 2 (1), 5-16. Harbaugh, William (1998), “What Do Donations Buy? A Model of Philanthropy Based on Prestige and Warm Glow,” Journal of Public Economics, 67 (2), 269 ' 284. Hibbert, Sally and Suzanne Horne (1995), “To Give or not to Give: Is that the Question?” in European Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 2, Flemming Hansen, ed., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 179-182. Hibbert, Sally and Suzanne Horne (1996), “Giving to Charity: Questioning the Donor Decision Process,” Journal of Consumer Marketing, 3 (2), 4-13. Hoeffler, Steve and Kevin Lane Keller (2002), “Building Brand Equity through Corporate Societal Marketing,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 21 (1), 78 ' 89. Liao, Mei-Na, Susan Foreman and Adrian Sargeant (2001), “Market versus Societal Orientation in the Nonprofit Context,” International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 6 (3), 254 ' 268. Langer, Judith (1997), “What Consumers Wish Brand Managers Knew,” Journal of Advertising Research, 37 (6), 60-65. Lemon, Katherine N., Roland T. Rust and Valerie A. Zeithaml (2001), "What Drives Customer Equity," Marketing Management, 10 (1), 20-25. Lindahl, Wesley and Aaron Conley (2002), “Literature Review: Philanthropic Fundraising,” Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 13 (1), 91 ' 112. Lynch, Michael (1997), “Applying Behavior Change Theory to Donor Management,” Fund Raising Management, February, 20-22. McAlexander, James H. and John W. Schouten (1998), “Brandfests: Servicescapes for the Cultivation of Brand Equity,” in Servicescapes: The Concept of Place in Contemporary Markets, John F. Sherry, ed., Chicago: American Marketing Association, 377-402. McAlexander, James H. and John W. Schouten and Harold F. Koenig (2002), “Building Brand Community,” Journal of Marketing, 66 (?), 38 ' 54. Meyer, Harvey (1999), “When the Cause is Just,” Journal of Business Strategy, 20 (6), 27 ' 31. Morgan, Robert and Shelby Hunt (1994), “The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 58 (3), 20-38. Mowday, Richard T., Richard M. Steers and Lyman W. Porter (1978), “The Measurement of Organizational Commitment: A Progress Report,” Graduate School of Management, University of Oregon. Muniz, Albert Jr. and Thomas O’Guinn (2001), “Brand Community,” Journal of Consumer Research, 27 (4), 412 ' 432. Peacock, Mark (2000), “Charity ends with the Lottery: It ain’t what you give, it’s the way you give it,” New Economy, 7 (2), 120-123. Peltier, James, John Schibrowsky and Don Schultz (2002), “Leveraging Customer Information to Develop Sequential Communication Strategies: A Case Study of Charitable-Giving Behavior,” Journal of Advertising Research, 42 (4), 23 ' 41. Polonsky, Michael Jay and Greg Wood (2001), “Can the Overcommercialization of Cause-Related Marketing Harm Society?” Journal of Macromarketing, 21 (1), 8 ' 22. Reichers, Arnon E. (1985), “A Review and Reconceptualization of Organizational Commitment,” Academy of Management Review, 10 (3), 465-476. Reid, Peter (1989), Well-Made In America: Lessons From Harley Davidson on Being the Best”, New York: McGraw- Hill. Rosenblatt, Jerry A., Alain J. Cusson and Lee McGown (1986), “A Model to Explain Charitable Donation ' Health Care Consumer Behavior,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 13, Richard Lutz, ed., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 235-239. Rothschild, Michael (1979), “Marketing Communications in Nonbusiness Situations or Why It’s So Hard to Sell Brotherhood Like Soap,” Journal of Marketing, 43 (2), 11-20. Sager, Jeffrey K. and Mark W. Johnston (1989), “Antecedents and Outcomes of Organizational Commitment: A Study of Salespeople,” Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 9 (Spring), 30-41. Sargeant, Adrian (2001a), “Using Donor Lifetime Value to Inform Fundraising Strategies,” Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 12 (1), 25 ' 38. Sargeant, Adrian (2001b), “Relationship Fundraising: How to Keep Donors Loyal.” Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 12 (2), 177-192. Schlegelmilch, Bodo, Alix Love and Adamantios Diamantopoulos (1997), “Responses to Different Charity Appeals: The Impact of Donor Characteristics on the Amount of Donations,” European Journal of Marketing, 31 (8), 548 ' 560. Sen, Sankar and CB Bhattacharya (2001), “Does Doing Good Always Lead to Doing Better? Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility,” Journal of Marketing Research, 38 (2), 225-243. Shouten, John W. and James H. McAlexander (1995), “Subcultures of Consumption: An Ethnography of the New Bikers,” Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (June), 43-61. Smith, Scott M. (1980), “Giving to Charitable Organizations: A Behavioral Review and a Framework for Increasing Commitment,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 7, Jerry Olson, ed., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 753-756.