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Thus relationship marketing is not a short term tactic but a strategy that should be done in a vacuum. Kettle P (2000) defined Customer Relationship Marketing as a strategy to identify and attract profitable customers and retaining them by creating efficient relationships in order to guarantee a profitable growth. In this definition it is clear that relationship marketing is not all about making customers, but rather is a marketing concept that should be conducted at managerial level so that an element of mutual benefit between the customer and the organization can result.
However by maintaining and managing such a relationship, relationship marketing would have been achieves. Though the case some scholars such as John Petrol regard Relationship marketing as an “old wine in a new bottle” while others regard it as a new approach representing a paradigm shift in marketing. But to know where relationship marketing lies we need to know the evolution of it flirts Evolution of relationship marketing Relationship marketing is witnessed long back in enceinte times of barter trading.
Back then traders used to personalize trade and what was practiced was customized trading. With the law of barter trading, there was supposed to be a double coincidence of wants for it to be successful which means it was the duty of a seller to look for a buyer who bears a product the seller wants and who also have a need the seller would satisfy. Thus with this double coincidence of wants an element of mutual benefit existed as well buyer seller relationship.
Though, industrial revolution changed all this with many organizations turning to concentrate on mass production. In this era the sense was to produce as many the organization can with the assumption that customers will buy whatever would be available in the market and this therefore created a transaction oriented marketing concept. In this concept, customers where ignored because traders assumed that their products and services where much good and customers will continuously by them since traders were much concerned with their product.
Today customers are back into the forefront with marketing again focusing on them customer. Customers are now bold and aggressive in their demands not only for responsive services but also for personalized and customized services. The role of marketing has changed from the basic principle of the marketing concept when all service were made to satisfy customers as they Were regarded as kings to relationship marketing, that is the need for an organization to have customers whom it calls its friend and will always be loyal with the organization.
However one question that remains is that can this change be considered a new approach in the field of marketing representing a paradigm shift or like John Petrol it is just “old wine in a new bottle. ” To answer this we need to know the meaning of the phrase old wine in a new bottle. Old wine in a new bottle Considering Relationship marketing as, “old wine in a new bottle” simply means associating relationship marketing with long held principles of customer services.
Eric Arnold, Linda Price and George Zinnia (2008) defined customer service as those activities an organization perform towards customers so as to enhance satisfaction and deliver value to the customers during the process of making a sale of a good or seen/ice. The primary’ goal of relationship marketing is to know one owns customers and discerning how best to serve them, thus the meaning of the “old wine” can be said to be the ensue of providing a good or a service that places the customer first.
Usually this principle is still practices by small local organizations who are still meeting their customers face to face The “new bottle” is the new technology that now permits many companies to perform a lot of activities so as to create customer relations. Modern Relationship marketing bases its foundation mainly on the modern technology that is opening great opportunities in the business environment. Now many organizations use modern technology to gather detailed information about their customers, track customers as well as use various hypes of telecommunication services to create relations with their customers. Arresters have thus find it out that for a successful Relationship marketing it is a managerial aspect to focus on the primary goal that new technology is to be used to better serve ones client. By focusing projects upon this principle of old wine, managers thereby have a frame work in place through which they may guide and evaluate the progress of their technology implementation. Relationship marketing as a new concept Some scholars believe that the role of marketing has changed from being an old wine in a new bottle to a new concept on its own.
There are a number of reasons that are said to have brought this change and these are as follows: ; Globalization. With the formation of trade blocks and free trade zones such as the CADS markets are now more open because there are now less barriers of entry amongst the member states. Because o these companies are finding it easy now to penetrate foreign markets and this has result in intense competition being posed to local operators. Thus in respond these local firms are finding it profitable to engage into relationship marketing as a way of sighting competition. Competition. Competition at its best is increasing in the business sector. No matter how much many organization are trying to be customer focused new entrants are posing threats. With also many organizations engaging into expensive campaigns, so as to gain business at the expense of others. Thus competitive firms have made it their police to create relationship with their customers so as to be guaranteed repeated purchases and growth in profits ; Technology. Internet G and e-commerce have totally changed the business environment.
However it is now cheaper and convenient for organizations to create strong relations with its customers. Utilization of modern day technology has become a way in which most companies can easily create relations with its customers and as a result they will have competitive edge over other ; Product life cycle. Dynamics in technology as well as changes in consumer taste and preferences have shortened the product life cycle of many products. On the other hand developing new products is very costly and the only constant many organizations have is to engage into relationship marketing Total quality management.
To have a total quality program that is sound, implementation must be done into the whole complete organization. However since the organization does not operate on its own but with suppliers and outlets quality must be implemented at all ends. This means raw materials from suppliers must be of high quality in order for our output to be of high quality. And also our outlets should provide quality service so that our products will remain of high quality. However to implement this relationships must be created at both end, thus an element of relationship racketing exist However many factors have contributed.
In addition to the list above there are also other things such as efficient distribution and political environment that has resulted in many organization opting for relationship marketing rather than being customer focused. However basing on my understanding of these two concepts I therefore conclude that relationship marketing is not a new concept or idea but was practiced decades ago. It is new in the book but rather an old phenomenon. Avert Gumminess saw this situation as similar to that of Nicolas Columbus who discovered America.