Saudi Journal of Business and Management Studies (SJBMS)
Volume-2 | Issue-06 | 672-678
Original Research Article
Guilt, Shame, and Non-Profit Marketing
Mackenzie Cox, Kiara Pierre, Dr. Raj Devasagayam
Published : June 30, 2017
Abstract
People are put into situations sometime throughout their life where they are asked, “Would you like to donate?
Cause related marketing requires often guilt and shame tactics to get people to perform desired behavior, which more
often than not is donating to an organization. We wanted to find to what extent does guilt and shame drive the likelihood
for someone to donate? Also, what demographics are more likely to donate than others? To figure out these questions as
well as others, we conducted a quantitative research study. We gathered primary data through a convenience random
sampling method to continue for our descriptive research using quantitative data, then used OLS Simple Linear
Regression to process the data. The following data that we found to be the most significant from our survey is focused on
Age, Income, and Neuroticism. Showing that a person’s age, Income, emotional stability all have some connection as to
feelings guilt or shame as the statscal driver to donate to a non-profit organization. We also found that Gender, Ethnicity,
Income, and Year of School do not have an effect on a person’s likelihood to donate. We have found significant data that
nonprofit organizations may benefit from for their marketing strategies. They can save money by avoiding costly
marketing campaigns that target a certain gender, because gender does not drive likelihood to donate and gender does not
drive susceptibility to guilt and shame tactics. They can improve their bottom line by spending it on the right age groups.
Organizations should spend their money targeting age groups 25-54 because they are more susceptible to guilt and shame
tactics, eventually leading to donations.