Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore cause-related marketing in the context of a fashion event for Millennial women and elucidate how to gain their online and offline support. How much emphasis should be placed on the cause or social aspect, as opposed to the fashion or market aspect, in the Facebook event promotion? What is the effect of Millennial women’s current fashion behaviours and their social identities on their support for the fashion event? A local fashion show organized for and by Millennials, and supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, was presented to participants. Two identical Facebook event pages containing different videos emphasizing either the cause (augmented cause appeal) or fashion (standard fashion appeal) were designed. Participants were randomly assigned the task of examining these appeal pages. Two sets of dependent variables measuring support for the fashion event (online and offline) were included. The effectiveness and moderating effects of the augmented cause versus standard fashion Facebook event page appeal, the direct influence of current fashion behaviours, as well as the direct and mediating effects of social identities were studied, using Hayes’ conditional process modeling. This research provides evidence that greater online and offline support for a fashion event are engendered with the addition of an emotional video with a cause appeal, rather than one highlighting the fashion appeal. Interestingly, certain current fashion behaviours are found to directly influence offline but not online support. Moreover, female gender identity is found to be a strong predictor of support outcomes, and significantly mediates the relationship between most current fashion behaviours and online and offline support. Theoretically, this is the first research to contrast for-profit versus not-for-profit motives in an innovative and digital context. The findings demonstrate that the addition of an emotional emphasis of the cause will appeal to a wider population, independent of their current fashion behaviours, whereas simply mentioning the association to the cause but highlighting the products or fashion facet will influence Millennial women’s support for a fashion event depending on their levels of current fashion behaviours. Millennials should be recognized as a generation that values a sense of community. Marketing and public relations professionals should capitalize on this by incorporating inspirational, moving and empathetic content of the cause. It is more powerful in attracting a larger public than simply mentioning the cause on their Facebook pages. Evidently, practitioners from both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations can benefit from the results to develop effective communication strategies, and create social media pages and campaigns that will connect, engage and empower sub-groups of Millennial women.