Sborník 2009 díl 2. - Fakulta informatiky a managementu - Univerzita ...

Dr Grazyna Rembielak-Vitchev RELATIONSHIP MARKETING AND ITS IMPORTANCE
IN THE CONTEMPORARY MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Transaction marketing Relationship marketing
- Limited commitment to customer
- Moderate contact with customer
- Quality is primarily a concern of
production
- Communication is for persuasion
- Information is the content of
communications
- Business model is functional,
mechanistic, production-oriented
- Commitment to customer is high
- Customer contact is frequent and
rich
- Quality is the concern of all
- Communication is for meaningmaking
- Information is the product of
communicating
- Model is humanistic, relationship
based
Source: VAREY, R.J., Marketing Communication, Routledge Taylor and Francis
Group, London and New York 2002, p. 235 ISBN 0-415-23040-3
Relationship marketing embodies the following elements [2: 4]:
• Emphasizes a relationship, rather than a transactional, approach to marketing;
• Understands the economics of customer retention and thus ensures the right
amount of money and other recourses are appropriately allocated between the
two tasks of retaining and attracting customers;
• Highlights the critical role of internal marketing in achieving external marketing
success;
• Extends the principles of relationship marketing to a range of diverse market
domains, not just customer markets;
• Recognizes that quality, customer service and marketing need to be much more
closely integrated;
• Illustrates how the traditional marketing mix concept of the 4Ps does not
adequately capture all the key elements which must be addressed in building and
sustaining relationships with markets;
• Ensures that marketing is considered in a cross-functional context
The main justification for relationship marketing comes from the need to retain
customers. Companies lose money unnecessarily. Kotler and many other marketing
authors estimate that the cost of attracting a new customer may be five times the cost of
keeping a current customer happy so relationship marketing can be very beneficial for
an organization in a long term.
Contrasting these two approaches one can easily notice that the traditional marketing
approach emphasizes the management of key marketing mix elements within a
functional context. The new Relationship Marketing approach, while recognizing that
these key elements must be addressed, reflects the need to create an integrated, crossfunctional
means of marketing: one which stresses keeping as well as winning
customers. Current marketing focus is shifting from customer acquisition to customer
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