Cause Related Marketing: Between Solidarity and Competition within the Italian Agri-Food System

Today’s consumers demand products and services not only with proven intrinsic quality features but also endowed with non-material attributes such as respect for the environmental and ethical values. These concerns are central to recent marketing developments. Cause related marketing (CRM) is a good example of the new entrepreneurial strategies able to achieve on the one hand utilitarian aims and on the other hand to contribute to a social cause through different forms of company donation. From the analysis it emerges that in Italian agri-food system three types of agents are applying CRM: companies producing widely consumed brands, with high sales volume; small companies producing high quality goods but with brands known within a limited market area; mass distribution companies. The use and aims of CRM strategies are different for each of the actors.