When Cause‐Marketing Backfires: Differential Effects of One‐for‐One Promotions on Hedonic and Utilitarian Products

A remarkable cause‐marketing (CM) strategy has emerged in the marketplace: businesses promise to donate an identical product for each product sold (i.e., a “one‐for‐one” promotion). Yet despite prosocial tendencies, consumers hesitate when uncertain about others' preferences, which poses the question of whether one‐for‐one promotions are perceived to meet recipients' preferences. Five experiments (one field experiment and four laboratory...