Relationship Marketing in Relation to Company Employees and Customers - Essay Example

Relationship Marketing Abstract In the course of dealing with the decreased funding provisions, FIT Rangers Limited is being encouraged to uncompromisingly do market their products, which are in the form of recreational programs and services. Their positive reaction to the improved marketing efforts has encouraged the company’s directors to appreciate every effort incorporated in the process. The company has been able to carry out a stakeholder analysis, and through this the management has been able to understand the stakeholders’ groups that are needed to be reached, and also the level of engagement. There have been marketing training workshops and some of the staff members attending have showed hope in the idea that the increased visibility of media is a better solution to the current problem. As staff believes, this is supposed to increase the company’s leverage with the funding foundations. Other group staff members have clearly expressed their terror that the succeeding marketing efforts put in place may turn out to be beyond the achievement expected. Knowledge designates that both stated expectations in the set projections are impracticable in particular to the nature of product marketing. It indicates that the success of marketing definitely demands more than just the increasing media visibility (Bradley 2010, p. 106). Therefore, this paper gives a deep detail into aspects of relationship marketing in relation to the selected stakeholders groups. The main groups that will be dealt with are company employees and customers. Introduction As the management of the company is always in the rush to gain the visibility of the media, the extensions of the most significant marketing resource, which is the company’s relationship with resultant market being served is always overlooked. This is can be considered to be a serious ironic projection as it is well understood that the overall backbone of company’s success has been as the results of the commitments received from the company’s legislators, competent volunteers, efficient lay leaders, and down to earth company’s personnel. FIT Rangers Limited is an experiential education learning centre that uses a heuristic advance to learning. This mode of learning includes the actual process of self discovery and personal actualization, through outdoor activities that are supposed to challenge the intelligence and physical being of a person. As a training centre, FIT Rangers Limited focuses mainly on short but demanding training for dependable leadership and excellent citizenship, thus working under a motto of “Service and Leadership. For the purpose of doing everything so that the company survives the competitive shake-out that is already happening in the current market, the management has opted to do more than just having media attention. This has been supported with reports from emerging marketing research, which have indicated that the very sensitive public awareness of any kind of organizations is only considered to be a first step within the process of marketing. Other measures that are supposed to be considered in the long run, and of which have been missed out are about the aspects of building constructive relationships. Such relationships are supposed to be directed towards the selected target audiences; therefore, relationship marketing is considered to be a more significant process and fact to the company’s long-term marketing achievements. This by research shows that it is more important than just acquiring a widespread public awareness and fails to have strategies to move the business in better directions (Bradley 2010, p. 110). Relationship marketing is also considered to be the overall process of attracting, maintaining, and finally enhancing relationships with significant individuals within the targeted market. This indicates that through relationship marketing, everything goes beyond the idea of just marketing the company and its products and services, but also to ideas that are supposed to bring significant changes to the lives of many (Wallace 2000, p. 98). Considering the mandate of FIT Rangers Limited, such kind of marketing process applies to it marketing strategy because the funding of various programs is basically acquired from a few sources, and also the continuous educational programs are normally delivered to the specific market. Literature Review There is always a reason as why any organization should be in a position to identify its main and secondary stakeholders. Such reasons could be attributed to the overall management and decision-making processes. In this case, primary or main stakeholders in any organization as referred to as those whose interest in the resource is considered to be direct. There interest towards such resources is based on the fact that they may be depending on them for the purpose of having a better livelihood and/ or the overall exploitation of the resources. On the other hand, secondary stakeholders are those with interests that are more indirect in their nature. Sociologists finds them to be some of those professionals who are involved in various institutions or agencies and their main work has to do with resource management or depends partly on prosperity or the overall business that has been produced by the available resource (Curry, Flett & Hollingsworth 2006, p. 70). With FIT Rangers Limited, the overall idea of the stakeholder does not just extend simply to individuals who are directly involved in resource exploitation but also extends to all individuals who are getting some form of gain from the available resource or the location of existence. Therefore, all those involved in the planning, developing, implementing, and facilitating the programs, and customers having the experience of such programs are the key stakeholders to the company, and their involvement in the company’s key areas is highly appreciated. Therefore, the stakeholders associated with the company can be categorized into five groups: employee group; investors group; customers group; suppliers group; and influencers group. For the expected impact of these stakeholders groups to be felt all way round, especially with groups that has been found to have significant interests or in one way or another are getting significant benefits of the available resources, a sociological analysis is encouraged to get closer to their decision-making processes and institutions, motivations and priorities, and comprehend the cultural, economic, and social relations that normally exists between the available resources and each group (Daniel 2007, p. 102). Therefore, this view suggests that the term stakeholder is supposed to be deduced in the broadest sense and not the restricted direct resource utilization. One of the greatest challenges that the company’s management is anticipating to face in the future is persuading the federal, state, and the county legislators to support the company in terms of finances. Quality leadership and educational programs that are found to be in line with the critical needs of the community qualify for funding. Nevertheless, the programs of high quality required to fulfill the community needs are not always constant, as the needs keep on changing with the advancement in technology in the current market. Therefore, the known targeted relationship marketing projects that are known to raise the company’s credibility with the identified decision makers are no longer sumptuousness, but are just a necessity for efficient public funding. This means that FIT Rangers Limited staff are supposed to be effective at internalizing the concepts of relationship marketing to for the purpose of understanding the up-and-coming priorities and influences of the government for financial assistance in the future. Characteristically, the company’s decision makers normally have a small coverage of exposure to different views of leadership and educational programs. Therefore, the management of FIT Rangers Limited has been advised to focus their marketing message on the existing critical difference that the company is making on the lives of its customers. The following factors have been found to be key to the successful communication with decision makers within the company. They include of: a. Proper coordination of communication process This involves the overall management of communication processes by a selected person. The main purpose of such coordination is to maximize the impact of educational and leadership programs by eliminating the chances of duplicating the extended efforts. The company’s staff and well-trained clientele should be in a position to contact the selected officials for the coordination. b. Knowing officials that were elected. This is a process that involves the identifying of all participating officials that have been elected at the local level, state level, and also at federal level. Basic information on the officials’ interests and background is collected, and it can be done by youth or adult volunteers (Greg 2006, p. 235). To achieve this, all the elected officials are supposed to be visited by an able team of volunteers and the company staff, and this should be done on annual basis. For the case of key elected officials, one volunteer and probably one staff member should be allowed to visit. Before the visit is initiated, volunteers or staff members are supposed to review information pages, and probably attend a meeting being attended by the elected official. This kind of work has its benefits, of which the identification and also targeting of significant issues that are mainly of interest by the officials is one of them. c. Getting organized. This involves the process of developing a file of achievement stories, especially on the significant leadership and educational programs and also the overall issues that are believed to be shared with officials that are elected. d. Developing a communication plan. In this case, different volunteers and company staffs are allowed to interact directly with key elected officials. Information papers can be filled out on the key officials, and this can be done by the selected volunteers. Individual visits with the identified legislators are supposed to be organized and also prospects for personalized learning and development that can be realized through other identified ways. e. Conducting of effective legislative visits Conducting of effective legislative visits is a process that will involve face-to-face visits that is supposed to be conducted with the identified legislators (David 2006, p. 62). This is supposed to be done by clientele who are within the localities of the identified legislators, those that have been considered to be most effective and efficient. There are cases where a spokesperson can be involved, especially when dealing with groups. A person is supposed to make an appointment for a short, and a better planned visit, and then rationally be in a position to present the selected views and ideas. This is a time when where convincing documents are supposed to be used for the purpose of providing evidence, and they could consist of balance sheets, figures, and possible and available facts. At the end of such visit, a summary about whatever that has been shared in the visit should be developed and be left with the staff member or legislator. As part of an uninterrupted year-long conversation with legislators, individual visits and other written communications are supposed to be arranged well (Jeff 2004, p. 130). Staff members are exactly the overseer of the elected officials, and therefore, they are supposed to be embraced in the elected official's secretarial and probably the aide staff. The reason to this is that the idea of getting close to them personally is quite imperative. This cab achieved effectively and efficiently by ensuring that the most significant issues to be discussed are clearly determined when planning a legislative visit. Making sure that staff members are contacted regularly on an annual basis, and also going down to know and understand each other is the best way to achieve whatever that has been down in a relationship marketing plan. Company’s Strategies in Enhancing Relationship Marketing As a way of building better relationships with its clients, FIT Rangers Limited has embarked its effort in ensuring that the current relationship marketing is greatly enhanced so that the company lives within the current market demands. Relationship marketing is considered to be a process, and not just a one-time dedication. Therefore, relationship marketing begins the moment the idea about building or improving a business is initiated and this normally continues as long as the business is kept alive (Terry 2005, p. 34). The following strategies are being applied by the company in making sure that the main course of doing business is improved through the process of enhancing relationship marketing. a. Know the existing potential clients Knowing the existing potential clients is helping the company to be effective in developing effective procedure for passing the right information. One of the focuses within this strategy is being able to determine congregation of the potential clients (David, 2006, p. 135). The company’s management team now understands that for the business to grow and be completely customer-oriented, the customers’ key wants and needs are supposed to clearly be known. Therefore, identifying the company’s customer base has helped the management, planners, advisors, and other involving parties to tailor made marketing and also advertizing strategies to appeal to the tastes and interests of the selected market. b. Bringing out the expertise This is a process of clearly and completely demonstrating the competency in knowledge and skills to potential customers. This has enabled a large market to follow the expert’s steps, as they want to learn from the company’s experiences through provision of different leadership and educational programs (Terry 2005, p. 36). c. Starting a better dialog with clients for the purpose of establishing trust The management team has been able to understand that establish trust is a better way of developing a long-time relationship with the market. The company has achieved this by maintaining client enthusiasm and also creating client loyalty as the keys to its success (Terry 2005, p. 36). d. Making follow ups Professionalism is a significant factor for successful relationship marketing, and the company has initiated different follow up mechanisms for the purpose of remaining visible in the targeted market (Terry 2005, p. 36). e. Offering better customer service Treating customers in the right manner and also making sure that they are attended to is the way of life at FIT Rangers Limited. By providing better customer service to clients, the company has been able to get clients coming back again and again to enjoy a wide range of outdoor experiences. The company has also created interest in customers which has enabled it to build on its credibility and loyalty (Terry 2005, p. 37). f. Educating the company subscribers It is believed that education and knowledge strengthens relationship marketing with clients, and FIT Rangers Limited is achieving this by offering clients a variety of options to accessing information from the website about the products, services, and the company’s events (Terry 2005, p. 42). g. Selling and recommending only quality products Relationship marketing is the foundation of FIT Rangers Limited business; therefore, the company is ensuring that quality products and services that have value are brought into the market. This has enhanced the company’s approach to various needs of the targeted market as they arise, and it has banked a lot in research and development for the purpose of ensuring proper product development (Terry 2005, p. 44). Conclusion As FIT Rangers Limited field staff members and administrators are busy developing different marketing plans, it has been approved that criticality in the success of such plans is directly dependant to the inclusion of relationship marketing strategies. An audience that has been identified as critical to FIT Rangers Limited's future viability is the effectiveness of elected officials. This is identified in the cases where the different relationship marketing initiatives could be just targeting key legislative body of the general public, decision makers, media, and the clientele (ICC/ESOMAR 2008, p. 45). High touch and modified technology communication strategies are supposed to be employed when developing, maintaining, and also enhancing relationships with the elected governmental officials. The company’s professional future is determined to be secure when imagination is used to portray FIT Rangers Limited's dedication and capacity to concentrate on significant community issues. Therefore, this can be summarized by the fact that future times can be better if the channels of making go through key relationships are well understood (Janal 2007, p. 75). As it had already been discussed, knowledge designates that both stated expectations in the set projections are impracticable in particular to the nature of product marketing. It indicates that the success of marketing definitely demands more than just the increasing media visibility. Therefore, this paper has presented a deep detail into aspects of relationship marketing in relation to the selected stakeholders groups. The main groups that were dealt with are company employees and customers (Janal 2007, p. 105). As discussed, relationship marketing is also the overall process of attracting, maintaining, and finally enhancing relationships with significant individuals within the targeted market. This indicates that through relationship marketing, everything goes beyond the idea of just marketing the company and its products and services, but also to ideas that are supposed to bring significant changes to the lives of many (Janal 2007, pp. 107-108). Bibliography Bradley Nigel, 2010, Marketing Research. Tools and Techniques, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 102-156. Carol Wilkie Wallace, 2000, Great ad!: low-cost do-it-yourself advertising for your small business, Chicago: Liberty Hall Press, pp. 56-104. Curry, A., Flett, P., & Hollingsworth, I., 2006, Managing information and systems: the business perspective, New York: Taylor & Francis, pp. 32-89. Daniel S. Janal, 2007, 101 successful businesses you can start on the Internet, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, pp. 86-145. David C. 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