This essay is a critical literature review of Relationship Marketing in relation to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and technology. In this review, I will provide a brief orientation of relationship marketing; identify the benefits of relationship marketing for companies and customers and critically analyse the concept of RM with regards to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and analyse the role of technology in relationship marketing.
Leahy (2011:651) defined relationship marketing as “attracting and keeping customers for a long period of time”. RM is used by firms to change consumer attitudes and increase the frequency of purchase in a business using marketing techniques such as promotions and advertising. According to Ndubisi and Chan (2005), relationship marketing provides an organisation the opportunity to get access to the right information about their customers, meet the customers’ needs effectively, efficiently and gain competitive advantage. In addition, Gronroos (1994:9) suggests that relationship marketing is a new model in marketing and it’s about organisation “establishing, maintain and enhance relationships with customers at a profit so that objectives of the parties involved are met. This is achieved by mutual exchange and the fulfilment of promises.” Promises may be made by the company to their customers; yet, what remains to be seen are if the promises are fulfilled or ultimately broken. Szmigin et al. (2005) argues that due to the vast presence of relationship marketing in several industries, it can be difficult defining relationship marketing that accommodates all the relationships. Ravald and Gronroos (1996) argue that relationship marketing is not restricted to the firm maintaining a close relat...
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...ting is very important for the success of an organisation as reflected in the multiple definitions above. It is beneficial to both the company and their customers and when utilised responsibly, a great symbiosis relationship is established. The analysis of customer satisfaction resulting in increased customer loyalty has been carried out and the contribution of increased customer loyalty resulting in high profitability for the organisation has been highlighted. The role of technology in relationship marketing has been scrutinised leading to the research question stated above i.e. to what extent does technology foster a close relationship between an organisation and its customers. For further research, it would be advisable to explore this area in more depth so organisations can acquire the maximise output when using technology as a means of relationship marketing.
High levels of customer satisfaction will not guarantee future sales, but are more likely to result in repeat future sales than indifferent or poor customer service. Moreover, satisfied customers are more likely to try out other products/services in the firm’s range, or recommend it to friends and family. Build on customer loyalty Customer loyalty is valued highly by most businesses and can be
The five cars that were chosen included the following: A Ford pickup truck, a Buick sedan, a Toyota minivan, a Porsche 9-11 Turbo, and a Mercedes Benz C-Class. The individuals' personalities varied by gender, age, manner of dress, and other distinctiveness. They consisted of a twenty-one year old, white female; a thirty-four year old black male; and a fifty-two year old Hispanic male. These three individuals, ranging from various demographics were asked to match each of the five people in the personality groups with one of the five cars that described his/her personality most accurately. After analyzing the results of the individuals' answers, many strong consistencies were present in their responses.
Today we live in a society that is being dominated and confounded by commercials and ads. A new age, which could be referred to as the advertising age where commercials and ads tell us what is a necessity and what isn't. Howard Luck Gossage in his book Is There Any Hope for Advertising? Stated that there are ads and commercials everywhere around us in which there is no escape. "I like to imagine a better world where there will be less, and more stimulating advertising. I suppose all of us would like to see this come to pass, it would certainly clear away some of the confusion from advertising's murky picture and make it easier to comprehend" (7). Ads and commercials have flourished everywhere like a virus, once it strikes there is no way we can remove the marks it left behind. It creates this blurry, confusing picture, a "murky picture" as Gossage stated, which most people won't find the genuine truth behind what the product really mean and if its really useful or not. Advertising forces consumers into buying products by manipulation which make the customers buy products they think are good for them when in fact it isn't and they do this by appealing in their innermost desires. Advertisers are aware of the cultural need of acceptance and people's insecurities and takes advantage of these desires to persuade people into buying their products.
Relationship marketing can be used in customer loyalty schemes extensively because it helps the organisations in spreading awareness about their service all over the world. Moreover, the relationship marketing is the strategy through which brand loyalty as it assist in building relationships with the customers slowly. This process would help the firms in improving profit margin because through it they would able to attract and retain increased number of customers along with their
Grönroos, C. (2004). The relationship marketing process: communication, interaction, dialogue, value. Journal of Business & Industrial marketing, Vol 19, Issue: 2, 99-113.
The primary purpose behind relationship marketing is to build long-term relationships with the organization's best customers. In this case New Balance will build long term relationships with the customers they have, then use the relationship to pitch the new shoe product (Witkemper, C., Choong Hoon, L., & Waldburger, A. (2012)).
If customer start becoming frequent regular take notice of their time and order. So, when the regular customer appears, already have their order ready already. Making the customer feel exclusive. Relationship Marketing build loyalty, social and professional networking ability and course revenue for the company. Relationship marketing possess more power than customer value proposition to increase the business customer
Building a relationship with the customer has evolved into a system in itself be coordinated through them and cooperation between multiple destinations within the organization in order to one strategic objective, namely, to keep the property profitable customers and ensure their loyalty to the maximum possible period. Therefore, the main task of the CRM also be outside the scope of the marketing department and production, warehouse management and to senior management. But the new thing is in conjunction with the development of information and communication technologies, the emergence of what became known as the management of relations with customers electronically
Both from the customer and the company point of view, each customer interaction is part of an iterative learning process (Ballantyne, 2004). Further, Yau et al. (2000) advocated that the relationships between business firms and its customers have been constantly encouraged as successful business practices worldwide. The strategy of relationship marketing is of high relevance particularly in the service industries because of the intangible nature of service and their high level of customer interaction (Al-Hersh, Aburoub, & Saaty, 2014). Relationship marketing is defined as the process of engaging in proactively creating, developing and maintaining committed, interactive and profitable exchanges with targeted customers (Haker, 1999). Furthermore, Gronroos (1990) asserted that relationship marketing is to establish, maintain, enhance and commercialise customer relationship so that the objectives of the parties involved are met which can be done by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises. Moreover, the implementation of the relationship marketing concept at the operational level refers to relationship marketing orientation (Hau & Ngo, 2012). Relationship marketing orientation indicates the firms’ philosophy of doing business concerning relationship building by propagating developing trust, empathy, bonding, and reciprocity between a firm and its customers (Sin et al., 2005a, b; Tse et al., 2004). Trust is an important element for a successful relationship between the firm and its customers (Berry, 1995). First, trust is an essential component for a successful relationship between the firm and its customers (Berry, 1995). Trust It refers to a willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Empathy, as a dimension of business relationship, enables the two parties to see the situation from
Richards, K., & Jones, E. (2008). Customer relationship management: finding value drivers. Industrial Marketing Management, 37, 120-130.
Nowadays, advertising is a very big business. Very often is the major means of competing among firms. Furthermore, supporters of advertising claim that it brings specific benefits for consumers.
Marketing is a fundamental aspect of all businesses, whether they are set out to make a profit, or charitable organisations - they will have to carry out marketing research of some description. It has been described as being, “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” (Chartered Institute of Marketing) This essay will explore the role of marketing in a marketing oriented business and different aspects of the external environment that a smartphone company should be aware of. The points raised throughout will be supported using relevant journals, textbooks and newspaper articles.
Gummesson (2004) describes CRM as "the values and strategies of relationship marketing with particular emphasis on customer relationships- turned into a practical application." CRM has become a necessity to successfully and profitability manage customers and a firm’s relationship with them, with the market reaching a value of approximately $11.5 billion in 2002. (Xu et al. 2002). However, despite this large spending it is estimated that 70% of CRM implementations fail. (Xu et al. 2002). There are a number of reasons for these failures, such as a failure to implement it throughout the organisation and resistance from employees. But in some cases the buyer-seller relationship does not merit a collaborative-style relationship; the customer may only require a transactional relationship. It is because of this reason than I believe that CRM does not always have to constitute the heart of B2B marketing.
Ryals, L. (2005). Making Customer Relationship Management Work: The Measurement and Profitable Management of Customer Relationships. Journal of Marketing, 69(4), 252-261. doi:10.1509/jmkg.2005.69.4.252
Customer Relationships is about building a relationship of trust and convenience. A customer wants the company they are working with to be intuitive. To know their needs before they do. They want to feel respected, they need to believe you are honest and have integrity. This relationship breeds comfort and familiarity and causes the consumer to continue to do business with your company. This relationship that is built develops a personal relationship, like a friendship and it is one that the consumer cannot get from the store down the road and it is that personal touch of sincerity, of knowing their needs, of servitude that will turn them into lifelong branded customers.