What influences grocery shoppers to pick certain food brands over others? Obviously price, taste, and quantity all play a role in the decisions people make when picking out food.

What may surprise you is the role philanthropic organizations play in these decisions.

Ty Henderson, an assistant professor of marketing, presented his research on the topic Feb. 7 in an Undergraduate Business Council Faculty Research Presentation titled “Marketing a Brand With a Social Cause.” Henderson’s work looks into how brands can team up with a social cause or donate a percentage of profits to a charity in order to increase their own profits.

“You take these products and put a (charity) sticker on them and you get a little something," Henderson said. "The question is, how do we carefully examine what that something is?" 

One experiment Henderson detailed for the group involved three bottled water brands. Two of the brands were popular and well known, and one he invented. The three brands were described to experiment participants using similar language, but participants would choose the well-known water 95 percent of the time.

When a sentence was added saying the made-up brand donates a percentage of profits to The Red Cross, the experimental sales increased dramatically.

“The inclusion of a social cause has a positive effect on people’s choice behavior,” Henderson said. “What does it also do in peoples’ minds? Red Cross is trustworthy, so it’s like meeting a friend.”

Purchasers who choose products based on the inclusion of a social cause can have many different motivations. Some will buy the product because of the “warm glow” feeling it can create, others feel that the social cause makes the product seem higher quality.

Interestingly, Henderson’s research indicates that shoppers don’t actually care how much is going to the charity. He has shown that, if a company increases the percentage they donate, it does nothing to increase purchases or further motivate buyers.

“It runs counter to economic thinking, you should care twice as much about a donation of 30 cents compared to a donation of 15 cents,” Henderson said. “This effect is called warm glow, you don’t really care how much is donated, you just care that there is a donation.”

As long as a brand chooses a social cause that fits their demographic, such as Yoplait supporting breast cancer research, Henderson explained that the brand can utilize the cause in order to increase profits and make the company look better.

Some companies, he explained, can use a social cause to promote one product and still feel the benefits with their other products. Joining together with a social cause is a simple, straight-forward way for companies to promote their brand.

“[Giving to a cause] is certainly nothing to sneeze at and it is something companies should consider,” Henderson concluded.