American Marketing Association (AMA) (1985) defined Marketing Mix as „a process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create an exchange and satisfy individual and organizational objectives.‟ The marketing mix paradigm has been dominating marketing literature for about 40 years (Gronroos, 1994), this paradigm faced a lot of criticism, and many scholars in marketing argue that the view of marketing based on the 4Ps approach is outdated and represent only specific types of firms.
On the other hand, the marketing mix paradigm has some major drawbacks, such as product orientation rather than customer orientation, and relationship marketing scholars have emphasized these drawbacks. The explicit focus of the marketing mix on internal processes undermines the elements of customer feedback and interaction as the basis of building up relationships. In the context of relationship building, the marketing mix fails to address individual customer needs. Compared with traditional marketing, relationship marketing is more concerned about building customer relationships in order to achieve long-term mutual benefits for all parties involved in the exchanges. Relationship marketing essentially means developing customers as partners (Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003). Table 1.1 compares relationship marketing and traditional marketing.
Table 1.1 Comparison of Relationship Marketing with Traditional Marketing
Relationship marketing compared with traditional marketing
| Relationship Marketing | Traditional Marketing |
|---|---|
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*Traditional marketing can also be considered transactional marketing, in which each sale is considered to be discrete event. This table is based on an idea from: F. Robert Dwyer, Paul Schurr, and Sejo Oh, “Developing Buyer-seller Relationships,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51, April 1987, pp. 11- 27. (Source: Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003)
Since the purpose of relationship marketing is to gain the maximal value of a customer, customer loyalty should be emphasized to achieve this goal. The benefits of relationship marketing derive from the continuing patronage of loyal customers who, as a partner, are not sensitive to price cut over time (Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003). Interdependence, mutual cooperation, and commitment between supplier and customer are viewed as essential parts of the relationship, which leads to competitive advantage (Hougaard and Bjerre, 2002).
As the competitive environment becomes more turbulent, the most important issue the sellers face is no longer to provide excellent, good quality products or services but also to keep loyal customers who will contribute long-term profit to organizations (Tseng, 2007). To compete in such an overcrowded and interactive marketplace, marketers are forced to look beyond the traditional 4P‟s of marketing strategy, which are no longer enough to be implemented for achieving competitive advantage. Therefore, relationship marketing has become an alternative means for organizations to build strong, ongoing associations with their customers. As a part of marketing strategy, relationship marketing seeks to acquire and retain customers by providing good quality customer services and therefore has become one of the keys to success in acquiring strong competitiveness in the present markets because of its implications.
For Citing this article use:
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Saraswati, A. K. (2017). Relationship Marketing Impact on Relationship Quality and e Loyalty A Study of Online Travel Agencies.
