Customer Relationship and Sales Management - Essay Example

Relationship and Sales Management Introduction Relationship marketing is a theory generally applied to majority of marketing activities (Kotler et al., 1999). There are different types of relationship marketing applied today and these include those found in new media technology, corporate social responsibility and more. However, there is no single method or model of relationship marketing that can be applied to any situation, so there have to be variations. The objectives of relationship marketing are not weak, but they are not rigid so they can be changed, depending on the situation they are needed for. In line with this, the proponent tries to find out more about customer relationship in order to confirm or contradict the idea that ‘Relationship Marketing may still be regarded as an ‘umbrella philosophy’ with numerous relational variations rather than as a wholly unified concept with strongly developed objectives and strategies’ (Egan, 2004). The arguments are illustrated using examples from organisations and appropriate theory in line with relationship marketing and customer relationship. Relationship marketing and marketing activities As mentioned earlier, relationship marketing is a theory generally applied to majority of marketing activities. Relationship marketing is an integral part of every marketing activity because at present, classical marketing is slowly eliminated due to the fact that marketers are more concern on finding loyal customers than looking for new ones (Boone and Kurtz, 2006). This is due to some reasons that it is expensive to find for new customers than maintaining existing ones. In this reason, some organisations aggressively promote their product or service offerings in the hope that they will be able to acquire new potential customers. This in return incurs specific cost that eventually may be added up to the final price of product or service offerings. On the other hand, companies that are confident to cater loyal customers do not need to promote further their service or product offerings. As a result, customers are benefited because no further cost may be incurred for promotion that usually they have to pay as to be integrated in the final price of the offerings. Different types of relationship marketing There are three different and important marketing strategies used by marketers. These include creating customer satisfaction, building brand equity, and creating and maintaining relationships (Sorce, 2002). As can be observed, these three are interrelated. As a result, there is a great chance for a satisfied customer to become loyal to a certain brand he has tried so far. That customer can eventually attest to the performance of the brand which leads further to creating a significant relationship once there is an effort to create or maintain it on the part of marketers. There two major types of marketing: traditional marketing and relationship marketing which includes database marketing, interaction marketing, and network marketing (Brodie et al, 1997).These types of relationship marketing according to Egan (2001) are equivalent to direct marketing, consumer-relationship marketing and business-to-business relationship marketing. According to Brodie and his colleagues, these marketing types often do co-exist due to the fact that there are existing different situations between buyer and seller. However, in today’s modern approach in marketing, there is an added relationship marketing type which is also known as E-marketing which involves the use of internet and interactive technologies to link the firms and their customers (Palmer and Pels, 2005). The database marketing or known as direct marketing is a relationship marketing which is about analysing data obtained from customers and implementing the corresponding results (Blattberg et al., 2008). Blattberg and his colleagues elaborated that database marketing is about the use of customer databases in order to come up with effective acquisition, retention and development of customers which are the main components of marketing productivity. In short, customer value is enhanced while data from customers are analysed. There are many organisations that try to make use of database marketing in order to achieve the desired marketing productivity. Dell Computer tries to improve its customer acquisition rate by implementing data analyses of its prospects (Dell, 2011). This can be implemented through acquiring information from its support strategies based on order and technicalities of the product through the use of media technology. Some companies try to create customised promotion packages that they mail to their customers. The purpose of this is to stimulate needs for their product and service offerings. Other companies on the other hand try to identify major segments of their customers by actually able to study the data of customers who come and go in their stores. This is what Best Buy tried to implement in order to design marketing strategies that will fit to its target customer segments (Boone and Kurtz, 2006). The interaction marketing is about personal interaction between marketers and customers investing specific level of resources in order to come up with beneficial and interpersonal relationship (Palmer and Pels, 2005). This type of relationship marketing starts with igniting satisfaction on the side of customers. The prior objective of marketers in this case is to stimulate needs or demands for their product or service offerings and ensure meeting the expectation or even more of their prospective customers. This is evident on IBM’s corporate social responsibility strategy. In fact, it is now becoming a trend for every transnational company to go for corporate social responsibility to create dynamic contact with potential customers. McDonald, a fast food restaurant tries to create a demand for its product offering by integrating the corporate social responsibility in the achievement of its corporate goal. Finally, the network marketing on the other hand occurs among organisations that try to invest specific level of resources in order to come up with a strong firm level relationship (Palmer and Pels, 2005). Wal-Mart is a retailer company and is renowned for its low-price strategy. Wal-Mart’s ability to produce offerings at low cost is dependent on its supply-chain management. The greatest contributing factors for its low cost products are its suppliers. In line with this, Wal-Mart has to establish strong connection and relationship with them so as to continue its operation while ensuring constant implementation of its marketing strategic approach for the benefits of customers. Network marketing therefore is operational in detail and this happens particularly in the supply chain management in the case of Wal-Mart. On the other hand, some companies try to tie up with both profit and non-profit organisation through their corporate social responsibility as best practice and trend. In this way, their contact with potential organisations or stakeholders that could maximise their operation and resources is taken into consideration. It is in this reason why corporate social responsibility has become integrated with stakeholder’s perceptions, attitudes and behaviors in various marketing concepts for decades (Beckmann, 2007). Variations in relationship marketing Marketers are free to explore what type of marketing they need to use in their marketing activities (Kotler, 1999; Egan, 2001). In this reason, it cannot be prevented that they may be able to use both traditional and relationship marketing. There are different corporate objectives in the first place. At some point, these objectives are not only focus on financial considerations. However, what is the most important consideration is that these objectives are needed to be explored with the use of both traditional and relationship marketing. This only implies that relationship marketing is an integral part of the modern marketing activity. This is clear how the modern marketing is defined by various experts. Marketing in a changing world is not just about making a sale, but it is about creating customer satisfaction (Kotler et al., 1999). In marketing, there is an inclusion of planning, executing the idea of pricing, promotion, distribution of ideas, goods, services and more in order to come up with relationships that will both satisfy an individual and organisation (Boone and Kurtz, 2006). Considering that there are different types of relationship marketing and organisational objectives, then it is expected that there are specific variations in relationship marketing. Every organisation that applies the principle of relationship marketing may have used combinations of them and even part of traditional marketing at some point. Marketing in the first place includes customer-relationship strategy to stimulate needs (Boone and Kurtz, 2006). However, the bottom line of these all is to be able to meet the desired expectation of the marketers out from the laid objectives. In short, variations in relationship marketing are expected for as long as there are different organisational objectives that are to be met by marketing activities. The flexibility of relationship marketing As mentioned earlier, the objectives of relationship marketing are not weak, but they are not rigid so they can be changed, depending on the situation they are needed for. In this reason, relationship marketing is flexible. Marketers can freely explore what specific purpose it is for them. For as long as the bottom line of marketing activity is to reach specific goals, the flexibility of relationship marketing integrated with it is evident. For instance, it is clear that the bottom line of relationship marketing is to satisfy customer and specifically hold on to existing ones. However, depending on the nature of the business, relationship marketing may be applied even if it is not for holding existing customers. There are specific businesses that are not after of holding existing customers due to some prevailing factors such as price, promotion, location and more. These businesses may be transactional in nature (Wengler, 2006; Cheverton et al., 2005). In this reason, these businesses may just apply relationship marketing for the purpose of satisfying customers. At some point, their objective may not entirely for creating loyal customers but it is for the purpose of looking for the best market. In this reason, marketers may have placed different emphasis on the general objectives of relationship marketing. Everything about it seems to be integrated with the goal to stimulate need and demand for product and service offerings. Conclusion Relationship marketing is more on customer retention and satisfaction. Considering that every organisation or marketer is after of stimulating need or demand for their offerings, the most important marketing move commonly used at present time is to associate the concept of customer retention and satisfaction in marketing strategy. This can only be effectively implemented with relationship marketing strategy. References Beckmann, S. C. (2007) ‘Consumers and Corporate Social Responsibility: Matching the Unmatchable?’ Australian Marketing Journal, Vol. 15 (1): 27-36. Blattberg, R. C., Kim, B., Kim, P., and Neslim, S. A. (2008) Database marketing: analysing and managing customers. New York: Springer. Boone, L. E., and Kurtz, D. L. (2006) Contemporary Marketing. 12th ed. USA: South-Western. Brodie, R. J., Coviello, N. E., Bookers, R. W., and Little, V. (1997) ‘Towards a paradigm shift in marketing: an examination of current marketing practices.’ Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 13(5): 383-406. Cheverton, P., Foss, B., Hughes, T., and Stone, M. (2005) Key account management in financial services: tools and techniques for building strong relationships with major clients. Great Britain: Kogan Page Publisher. Dell (2011) ‘Company Website.’ [Online] Available at: http://www.dell.com/ (Accessed: 18 March 2011). Egan, J. (2004) Relationship Marketing: Exploring Strategies in Marketing. USA: Prentice Hall. Egan, J. (2001) Relationship Marketing: Exploring relational strategies in marketing. Harlow: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., and Wong, V. (1999) Principles of Marketing. 2nd ed. England: Prentice Hall. Palmer, R. and Pels, J. (2005) ‘Marketing Practice and Market Orientation: An Exploratory International Study’ in E. Kaynak and F. Jallat (Eds.). Marketing issues is Western Europe: Changes and Developments. USA: Routledge. Sorce, P. (2002) ‘Relationship Marketing Strategy.’ [Online] Available at: http://print.rit.edu/pubs/02_04_sorce.pdf (Accessed: 16 March 2011). Wengler, S. (2006) Account Management in Business-to-Business-Marketing. Germany: DUV. Read More