Abstract

The use of CRM as a marketing platform, which can not only increase financial gains, but also enhance the company’s image of bearing social responsibility, and hence its reputation, is studied. The purpose of this study is to mainly investigate the effects of pre-image (pre-reputation) of the corporation (cause) and alliance fit to the cause on the alliance, as well as on the new image (post-reputation) that are formed toward both partners as a consequence of the alliance. In addition, this study also employs consumer social responsibility and gender as moderators to further explore the changes of these postulated causal paths in the conceptual model. The empirical results show that (1) attitudes toward the cause-corporate brand alliance (CCBA) will positively influence the post-image of the corporation, post-reputation of the cause, and service quality of the corporation; (2) pre-reputation of the cause and alliance fit will have significant and positive effects on attitudes toward the CCBA; (3) gender plays a vital moderating role in the CRM campaign. The managerial implications for marketing managers and limitations are discussed.

Key words: Corporate brand image, cause-corporate brand alliance, alliance fit, service quality, consumer social responsibility.