Relationship Marketing and Forging Closer Ties to Prospective Customers - Coursework Example

The realm of marketing strategy theories contains a multitude of directions and or processes by which this area can be approached as the discipline calls for understanding the industry, market segments, competitors, size of the firm being analyzed, consumer facets, past performance, and market factors, along with a number of other associated variables. Business guru Michael Porter in broaching the subject of marketing strategies brought forth that the field is comprised of three generic strategies as represented by cost leadership, differentiation as well as focus.

Philip Kotler’s work on marketing and strategic marketing covers many facets of the discipline stating that the  “… strategic fundamentals of marketing (i.e. segmentation, targeting, and positioning) are starting to show limitations as mechanisms for generating competitive advantages that can be translated into business opportunities and new products”. These two sources have been brought forth to illustrate the point that in the instance of formulating marketing has a broad number of variables to be considered.

In the instance of our software company, the lack of a sufficient marketing and advertising budget means that the company’s competitors have an advantage in marketing their products in the marketplace. This document has been crafted to look at the marketing function from a strategic standpoint to determine if through the use of varied marketing strategies if the company might be able to bridge the gap in this deficiency. Through research, it has been determined that theories such as strategic marketing, the resource-based view of the firm, relationship marketing theories, e-business and e-relationship theories, the management of online relationships as well as word of mouth and word of mouse marketing hold promise in offering the company a means to potentially broach this budgetary gap.

In examining the aforementioned theories as they relate to the circumstances of the company, it was found that there are distinctive associations that reveal the above theories can aid in marketing the company where it matters, the end customer. In reading through these materials it needs to be understood that the selected theories were chosen as they have linkages to each other that aids in the formulation of a synergistic association. The foregoing indicates that through the use of these theories that the company can overcome is marketing budget shortages, as well as strengthen its overall positioning and operations in the market.

In delving into the varied components of the theories and processes involved, a number of authors and experts will be consulted. Gummesson’s work on relationship marketing defines it as “… a process, a chain of activities … (that) … represents a holistic attitude to marketing”. In further clarifying the preceding, Gummesson adds that the above-represented shifting from the transactional facets of the way business is done, to one that is based on relational factors.

Relationship marketing is defined as “Promotional and selling activities aimed at developing and managing trusting and long-term relationships with larger customers”. The definition goes onto add that relationship marketing includes attention to the “Customer profile, buying patterns, and the history of contacts maintaining in a sales database, with a service representative assigned to one or more major customers to fulfill their needs and maintain the relations”.