Literature Review of relationship marketing Essay

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,

Answering questions and doing research Assignment

Answering questions and doing research - Assignment Example They do not indicate any doubt on the Adidas products or material durability. The only challenge that came out, however, was the issue of design and price. There is a need for Adidas to input more efforts and try to design new products that are attractive to the customers. Several people have heard about â€Å"Adidas† as a brand and have bought Adidas products before. However, the populations had varying attitudes and perception towards Adidas. Some thought that Adidas was a product of some famous football (Regine Business Research, 2013). Research also reveals that other people initially thought that Adidas was a brand meant for people who were of very high class. Most of the people, however, indicated that they buy Adidas products and prefer the Adidas products over the products of other brands such as Nike and Puma. Several respondents feel satisfied with the material and quality used in the products of Adidas. The respondents however had issues with the design of the products of Adidas. They feel that Adidas design is sub-standard with no attractive, stylish design. Several people preferred the Nike designs. Some people compare it to Nike and come out with some differences. Some people feel that Adidas has a problem with its branding as compared to Nike. People get positive and immediate impressions when thinking about the Nike brand and to the contrary, not when the same people think about the brand of Adidas. Adidas has got no stellar branding work like Nike making the market share of Nike relative. As a result, the worldwide market share of Adidas is almost half that of Nike (Regine Business Research, 2013). It is very important for Adidas to consider the influences from the groups because the groups and the company mutually depend on each other. According to Beard (2014), the groups consume the products of Adidas and, therefore, influence the success of the company