Relationship Marketing and How It Can Be Adapted to Increase Business Performance - Essay Example

The article has cited various countries where the business performance has increased as a result of an established relationship between culture and relationship marketing. These countries include Brazil, India, Russia, and China.
This article is important especially with the dawn of globalization. The aspect of culture cannot be overlooked as it exhibits both threat and opportunity dimensions. This article is instrumental in disregarding the threat dimension and taking advantage of the opportunities.

Summary
This research has been conducted to specifically evaluate the role played by various cultural aspects that determine the effectiveness of relationship marketing. Mainly, the report has described each aspect as dimensions and analyzed each of them through experiments and extensive research.

In this article, Stephen, Samaha, Joshua Beck, and Robert (2014) assert that accounting for culture is essential for effective international relationship marketing. According to the results they obtain from various researches, they have provided theoretical insight into how and when culture dimension regulates specific joints in the relationship marketing framework. Accordingly, individualism (states isolating themselves from the rest of the world in a globalized concept) is significant as it suppresses many relationship-building strategies.

The article has also considered the Uncertainty avoidance concept. Accordingly, this is the extent to which a certain culture feels vulnerable to unknown situations. This dimension presents itself as a barrier as it prevents the acceptance of new risks and flexibility. As such, it will prevent the effectiveness of integrating a particular culture in relationship marketing. On the other hand, Masculinity to femininity was found to be an independent variable as far as RM is concerned. Similarly, the model used in the article predicts that cultural customization in relationship marketing is paramount.
Critique
This topic discussed by the authors is a good choice as it reflects one of the significant aspects that can either undermine or lead to successful international marketing. The aspect of culture has been disregarded for a long time and hence the article has scored highly as far as topic choice is concerned. As such the article prompts other researchers to invest in this important aspect of international marketing.

The article declares that the concept of individualism carries the biggest weight as far as culture is concerned. By making this argument, the authors overlook the effects of masculinity or even femininity concepts. It is important to note that though individualism has a stiffer impact on relationship marketing, masculinity and femininity are equally significant.

Relationship marketing can be defined as a customer relationship strategy designed to encourage strong and lasting client connections to a brand. Since the goal of relationship marketing is to encourage a repeated sale, it is inappropriate for the authors to disregard other strategies that can achieve similar goals and even ensure a high level of customer loyalty.
The concept of uncertainty avoidance does not come out very well to explain the ability of various societies to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty. Accordingly, societies on the international front tolerate products majorly for their quality and ability to fully satisfy their needs.

Conclusion
This article is important as it describes the important aspect of cultural diversity in international trade. International relationship marketing, as it has been aforementioned, describes how business entities can take advantage of cultural aspects to create brands that will enhance customer loyalty.
In addition, the essay has cited the principles of individualism, masculinity and femininity. As a result, the essay has outlined the effect of each principle. Read More