Cause Related Marketing: a qualitative and quantitative analysis on Pinkwashing

Cause related marketing is the process of formulating and implementing marketing activities characterized by an offer from the firm to contribute an amount to a specified cause when customers buy their products. In this context many papers deal with problem of greenwash and discuss on the mediation between green consumer confusion and green perceived risk. On the contrary as far as we know there is no literature on the influence on pinkwash on pink trust. The term pinkwash has been created in 2002 by American Breast Cancer Organization for the campaign “think before you pink”; in this campaign it has pointed out that there are companies and organizations that care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product but at the same time produces manufactures and or sell products linked to the disease. The object of this study is to see the effects of pinkwash on pink consumer confusion and pink perceived risk.We test different hypotheses: the association between pinkwash and pink consumer confusion , pinkwash and pink perceived risk, pinkwash and pink trust, pink consumer confusion and pink trust,pink perceived risk and pink trust.