Marketing Management and Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing Management and Strategy - Assignment Example The paper starts by explaining the meaning of relationship marketing and the main part of the paper will discuss the relevance of this concept to today’s business. Relationship marketing is perhaps one of the most important concepts of marketing during the contemporary period. Basically, â€Å"customer relationship management (CRM) or relationship marketing is the overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction,† (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, p. 27). On the other hand, (Gartner, 2007, p.4) defines CRM as a â€Å"business strategy with outcomes that optimize profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction by organizing around customer segments, fostering customer-satisfying behaviours and implementing customer-centric processes.† Essentially, many organizations have realised that customer loyalty is very important since it determines the success or failure of their operations. This has prompted the marketers of different firms to forge ahead with different strategies that are meant to create long lasting relationships with the customers. In every business, it can be observed that the quality of the relationship that exists between the company and its customers has a bearing on its performance. Lamb et al (2008) posits to the effect that relationship marketing is a philosophy that emphasises on creating long term relationships with the customers so that the company can sustain its operations in the long run. Customers are compelled to buy certain products that are offered by different firms as a result of the quality of service they get when doing business with them. During the contemporary period, it can be seen that stiff competition characterises different markets and this is the main reason why efforts should be made to retain the customers that already exist in the organization (Athanasopoulou N.D). One viable strategy that can be implemented by the organi zation is to try to create quality relationships around services offered to the customers so that they can be in a position to identify with the organization. When this identity has been created, the customers are likely to have a predisposition towards the products that are offered by the company. The customers in any business are the main component of the relationship mix which ought to be created around value of the products offered. According to Ferrazzi (2006), the quality of the relationship that exists between the organization and the customers is determined by the attitude of the targeted audiences by the firm towards the value of the products and services offered. This point is also supported by Wang et al (2004) who state that the customers specifically purchase different products so that they can derive various values from using them. There are different values that are derived from consuming a certain product and these include the following: â€Å"emotional value,† utility derived from the affective state of goods or services; â€Å"social value,† social utility obtained from using a product â€Å"functional value† utility derived from the perceived quality of a product as well as â€Å"perceived sacrifice† which is loss that is likely to be encountered from purchasing a particular product or service. In most cases, the