Relationship marketing, also called relationship marketing, is a concept that was born from a change in the strategic orientation of marketing, which goes from the search to attract customers (transactions) to the search for their comprehensive satisfaction in the long term (relations).
It can be said that relationship marketing, in general terms, is the process that integrates customer service with quality and marketing, in order to establish and maintain lasting and profitable relationships with customers, as presented in the following figure:
Relationship marketing as the integration between quality, customer service and marketing. Source: Christopher, Payne, and Ballantyne, p.5
Here is a brief bibliographic review to expand and deepen on the previous definition:
For López-Pinto, et al., (P.363), relationship marketing is the process of identifying, establishing, maintaining, reinforcing and, if necessary, ending relationships with clients and other stakeholders in a profitable way, such that the objectives of all parties involved are achieved. López-Pinto, et al., P.363.
According to Zikmund and Babin (p.10), marketers often talk about getting customers, but keeping them is of similar importance. Effective marketers work to build long-term relationships with their customers. The term relationship marketing communicates the idea that a basic goal is to build long-term relationships with customers, which contributes to the success of the company.. Once an exchange is made, effective marketing demands managing relationships so that additional exchanges are generated. Effective marketers believe that making a sale is not the end of the process, but the beginning of the organization's relationship with a customer. Satisfied consumers will return to a company that has treated them well. If they need to buy the same product in the future, or if they need something related, they know the first place to look.
According to Dvoskin (pp. 429 and 430), this methodology implies a system based on technological tools that allows building loyalty to and from the customer. It is based on the idea of establishing a learning relationship with each client, which becomes more intelligent with each interaction. It should be recognized that customers, whether they are consumers or organizations, need exactly what they need, and interactive and database technologies make it possible to respond to these demands.
Continuing with Dvoskin, to develop a relationship marketing program the following steps should be taken into account:
- Customer identification. It involves a greater effort than the segmentation process, because under the principle of relationship marketing each customer is a segment; once each of them is known, it is possible to classify them into groups. Customer differentiation. Each customer has a certain value for the organization according to:
- the frequency of purchase, the amount of the purchase, the date of the last purchase.
It is also indicated that relationship marketing aims to create long-term, mutually satisfactory relationships with key agents (consumers, suppliers, distributors) in order to obtain and retain long-term preferences and business with those agents. Marketers accomplish this by promising and delivering high-quality products and services at fair prices. It strengthens the economic, technical and social ties between the members of two organizations, reducing transaction costs and time spent. In the best of cases, transactions stop being negotiated every time and become routine. The latest product of relationship marketing consists of building a collaboration network between the different companies that make up the value chain. A marketing network is made up of a company and its stakeholders (consumers, workers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, advertising agencies, academics, and others) with whom it has built mutually beneficial collaborative relationships. Increasingly, competition does not occur between individual companies but between networks of companies, and the company that is situated in the best collaborative network wins more. The operating principle is simple: build an effective network of relationships with the main stakeholders and you will reap benefits. (Vertex Ed., P.8)
Mesonero and Alcaide (p.148) suggest that, in essence, it is an entrepreneurial mindset that emphasizes building long-term relationships with customers and consumers. It is, therefore, a matter of creating relationships with customers, in which each one of the interactions goes beyond the limited and cold framework of customary commercial exchanges. For them, Relationship Marketing:
- It constitutes a business philosophy or strategic orientation. Therefore, it involves a sustained effort for the organization over time, and responds to a way of understanding how to compete in the market. It seeks a beneficial relationship for the parties involved in it, that is, it is about building and developing relationships The relationship can (and should, in some cases) end. From a careful analysis of what the relationship with the client brings us, we must conclude whether or not it is necessary to end the relationship. It is not about setting customer loyalty as a sole business objective. The acquisition of new customers will continue to be important for industrial companies.
However, experience shows that on more occasions than desired, organizations tend to underestimate the potential of their "already" clients. The key, under this approach, lies in analyzing the relationship with the customer as a whole, not as a set of non-interrelated transactions.
Bibliography
- Christopher, Martin; Payne, Adrian and David Ballantyne. Relational Marketing, Ediciones Díaz de Santos, 1994 Dvoskin, Roberto. Marketing fundamentals: theory and experience, Ediciones Granica, 2004 López-Pinto, Bernardo, et al. The pillars of marketing, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 2010Mesonero, Mikel y Alcaide, Juan Carlos. Industrial marketing: how to orient commercial management to a profitable and lasting relationship with the client. ESIC Editorial, 2012Vértice Editorial. Strategic Marketing, Editorial Vértice, 2008 Zikmund, William and Babin, Barry J. Market Research, Cengage Learning Editores, 2008
