How Do Differing Community Engagement Strategies Affect Consumer Responses to a Retailer?

Abstract

This article develops and tests a conceptual model examining the effects of retailer’s use of two community engagement strategies, partnership and philanthropy. A survey, featuring one of four randomly assigned promotional messages, was created and distributed to customers of a retailer that were also members of a women’s social organization. Analysis on the sample of 440 respondents indicates that engagement strategies cause different reactions. Specifically, partnership strengthens consumer identification with the retailer, while philanthropy strengthens feelings of purchase satisfaction. Moderation tests imply that using both strategies together can encourage consumers to behave more relationally, yielding additional returns for a retailer.