Literature Review of relationship marketing - Essay Example

The emphasis on relationships as opposed to transaction based exchanges is very likely to redefine the domain of marketing (J.N. Sheth, 1988). Indeed, the emergence of a relationship marketing school of thought is imminent given the growing interest of marketing scholars in the relational paradigm. Relationship marketing is in the Advertising, Marketing, & Sales subject. Promotional and selling activities aimed at developing and managing trusting and long-term relationships with larger customers is defined as Relationship Marketing.

Customer profile, buying patterns, and history of contacts is maintained in a sales database, and a service representative who is also called an account executive is assigned to one or more major customers to fulfil their needs and maintain the relationship (Business Dictionary, 2007). Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that evolved from direct response marketing; it places emphasis on building longer-term relationships with customers rather than on individual transactions. Relationship marketing involves an understanding of customers' needs and wants through their lifecycle and providing a range of products or services accordingly.

Often, though, it is used interchangeably with terms such as customer loyalty, database marketing, predictive modelling, data warehousing, one-to-one marketing, relationship selling, retention, mass customization, customer intimacy or customer bonding. The term relationship marketing was popularised in the 1980s when the focus of marketers started to switch from customer acquisition to customer retention. The concept was strongly influenced by reengineering theory, which was gaining currency at the same time: organisations undergoing reengineering became structured according to complete tasks and processes rather than functions, i.e. cross-functional teams should be responsible for a whole process, from beginning to end, rather than having the work go from one separate functional department to another.

Traditional marketing is said to use the functional department approach, which is now deemed too limited to provide a usable framework for assessing and developing customer relationships. In today's sophisticated consumer environment, an alternative model where the focus is on customers and relationships rather than markets and products is now required. As with each new shift in the focus of marketing, there are advocates and critics of the relationship focus in marketing. However, in the same way as (Kotler, A Generic Concept of Marketing, 1972) observed about other shifts in marketing, it is believed that the emergence of a relationship focus will provide a "refreshed and expanded self concept" to marketing.

This optimism stems from at least four observations: (i) relationship marketing has caught the fancy of scholars in many parts of the world, including North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, as is evident from the participation in some of the recent conferences held on this subject (Parvatiyar, 1994); (ii) its scope is wide enough to cover the entire spectrum of marketing's sub disciplines, including channels,