Relationship between Value Marketing and Concept Relationship Marketing - Essay Example

Reflective Journals College Part The article ed by Ravald and Grönroos addresses the aspects of value concept and relationship marketing.1 The article aims to highlight the relationship between value marketing and the concept relationship marketing, and their overall influence in marketing. In reality, the two aspects have grown to be among the most famous trends in the contemporary business world. On the other hand, the value concept is two-fold, and may not be very easy to understand and implement with respect to the customers involved.2 As the authors claim, value addition is possible through many ways, but, the ultimate aim of value provision is to reduce the relationship costs for the clients in the organization. Conceptually, these two aspects have brought a revolutionary paradigm in marketing that mainly focuses on having and taking care of the customers rather than merely attracting them. Notably, though, is the importance of these two elements in business today with respect to the customers and the progress of the organization in context. Analysis Delineating from their generality, value concept, and relationship marketing have several other constituents tied to them. Besides, myriad theories combine to link, separate and contextualize the value concept and relationship marketing to the prevailing business environment. Within the value concept, for instance, is the customer-perceived value, mathematically defined as the perceived benefits divided by the perceived sacrifice.3 The sacrifices, in this case, are the costs the customer has to incur during purchase such as purchase price and installation costs among others. To sum up about the value concept, it is very critical for any company aiming to launch competitive values to the clients to carefully analyze and understand the needs of the clients.4 It is the riskiest part of the value concept since the lack of such understanding may dilute customer loyalty. It may be a total waste of resources, and cause a ripple effect of not meeting the objectives of the company. In general, the value concept is directly proportional to relationship marketing.5 Arguably, reading this article is not only important to anyone aiming to start a business, but also to the established companies. Learning Clearly, the impact of such reflection on professional learning and professional marketing skills cannot be overemphasized. As already asserted above, the reflection has a direct relationship with both professional learning and the real business environment. For one, it is through the reflection that a learner garners skills required for professional marketing practice and personal growth in business. As such, it is justifiable to conclude that mastering both the two concepts entirely depend on the reflection. Moreover, it is through such reflection one establishes a firm foundation for own learning and personal development with respect to the marketing as a profession. At this point, it is worth noting that a change of attitude, processes and behavior is more than necessary to facilitate the two concepts. In future, I will focus more on the needs of the customer as a parameter that influences my adjustments to the business surrounding. As an aspiring business icon, the value concept and relationship marketing would be very crucial for my practice. I plan to put all these concepts into consideration and use them as the driving factors to my success. Part 2 Description As opposed to the previous article, this second article focuses on using the principal component analysis method as a tool in contractor pre-qualification.6 Contractor-prequalification involves obtaining particular information from contractors and even project teams in a bid to pick the most qualified of all the applicants. The process is complex with a lot of demands and factors for consideration. Even so, the procedure involved has to be fully followed; flouting any part of the same is a disaster in the making. By composition, the procedure consists of subjectivity, nonlinearity, and uncertainty.7 As such, this process is more aligned to art than scientific evaluation, which makes it even more complicated. Analysis As per the above assertion, contractor pre-qualification hosts a string of procedures and stipulations for singling out competent contractors from which to solicit for tenders.8 For both public and private firm owners, tender issues have always been one of the greatest challenges particularly due to the complications involved. Characterized by uncertainty, nonlinearity, and subjectivity, contractor pre-qualification is a double group problem, which is also mathematically non-linear. Previously, there has been an attempt to align the nonlinearity; present in the attributes of the contractor with the pre-qualification proposals from the owner client. Such attempts constitute developing various non-linear models including the artificial network model and the multi-attribute utility model among a variety of others. Concurrently, there have been efforts directed at reducing subjectivity and uncertainty mainly through research-developed techniques.9 One such technique is the changing degrees of sophistication and complexity. Such techniques are the basis of almost all the theories in this field; some of which include the 1985 set of theories developed by Nguyen. The set of theories are evaluated, and bidders are selected with respect to their cost, past experiences, and nature of bid information.10 Interestingly, the system was overly successful and received heralds for providing so much information that could help with the contractor pre-qualification process. Besides, it is crucial to note that this process is largely mathematical and involves a series of mathematical calculations. Learning Through the reflection of this analysis, I have learnt several theories involved in contractor pre-qualification Besides the complexity of the processes involved. Furthermore, I have got the magnitude of the delicateness of the procedure, hence, the need for careful and informed handling of the same. Similarly, I have learned the dependence of the procedure on myself as the proprietor. My decisions are very crucial successfully completing the process, and reducing its subjectivity and complexity. As such, I can apply all that I have learned in advising various firms about contractor pre-qualification. However, in case am in charge of such a process, I would still use the information to guide my decision-making. By its mathematical nature, most of the procedures involved in this process need not to be changed, only the parameters may change. Therefore, in future I would only fine-tune the parameters to meet the prevailing needs, and use what I have learned to better the process of contractor pre-qualification. Bibliography Christopher, Martin, Adrian Payne, and David Ballantyne. 1991. Relationship Marketing. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Gronroos, Christian. 1994. From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing. Asia-Australia Marketing Journal 2 (1): 9-29. Doi: 10.1016/s1320-1646(94)70275-6. Jolliffe, I. T., and J. Edward Jackson. 1993. A Users Guide to Principal Components.. The Statistician 42 (1): 76. Doi: 10.2307/2348121. Lam, K. C., T. S. Hu, and S. T. Ng. 2005. Using the Principal Component Analysis Method as a Tool in Contractor Pre‐Qualification. Construction Management and Economics 23 (7): 673-684. Doi: 10.1080/01446190500041263. Palaneeswaran, Ekambaram, and Mohan Kumaraswamy. 2001. Recent Advances and Proposed Improvements in Contractor Prequalification Methodologies. Building and Environment 36 (1): 73-87. Doi: 10.1016/s0360-1323(99)00069-4. Ravald, Annika, and Christian Grönroos. 1996. The Value Concept and Relationship Marketing. European Journal of Marketing 30 (2): 19-30. Doi: 10.1108/03090569610106626. Russell, Jeffrey S., Donn E. Hancher, and Miroslaw J. Skibniewski. 1992. Contractor Prequalification Data for Construction Owners. Construction Management and Economics 10 (2): 117-135. Doi: 10.1080/01446199200000012. Value-Added Marketing: Marketing Management for Superior Results. 1993. Long Range Planning26 (3): 141. Doi: 10.1016/0024-6301(93)90036-f. Read More