Fundamentals_of_Marketing

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MARKETING: DEVELOPMENT AND SCOPE
Grönroos suggests that these contradictions can be resolved by means of a dynamic and
fluid relationship marketing approach which alone can counter the straitjacket of the clinical
transaction-based, mass-market approach of the ‘4 Ps’. The aim of relationship marketing
is to establish, maintain and enhance relation with customers and other partners, at a profit,
so that the objectives of all the parties are met. This is achieved by the mutual exchange
and fulfilment of promises. Such promises are usually, but not exclusively, long-term. The
establishment of a relationship can be divided into two parts: to attract the customer and to
build the relationship with that customer so that the economic goals of that relationship can
be achieved. This shifts the ground towards the ‘part-time’ marketer; the recognition that,
within organizations, many non-marketing specialists actually are practising marketing
functions. Internal marketing is needed to gain the support of these people. Both internally
and externally, relationships have to be regulated by means of the exchange of promises to
establish trust through the formation of relationships and dialogue with both internal and
external customers. While the ultimate objective is to build a loyal customer base, there is
no doubt that this refocusing of marketing to emphasize qualities of connectedness, dialogue
and trust represents an attempt to uplift the process of marketing.
Grönroos’s aspiration that marketing in the twenty-first century would be the era of a
new relationship marketing based on the mutual exchange and fulfilment of promises has
not so far come to fruition, nor, one might suggest is it likely to. Why? One reason is that,
as it has evolved in practice, the umbrella term ‘relationship marketing’ subsumes a number
of disparate, even contradictory discourses associated with areas such as services marketing
and one-to-one marketing. In services marketing it is quite conceivable to envisage a service
provider who seeks to develop more meaningful relations with customers. However, the
rhetoric of direct marketing and database marketing has a quite different focus (Peppers et
al., 1999). Through customer databases and mass customization the marketer plans the offers
and communications on the basis of customer profile and feedback and can focus on the
development of an individual ‘relationship’ with each of a large number of customers. The
term ‘relationship’ is used advisedly and in a technical sense to point to two features which
are required of the technology: its ability to address an individual and the ability to gather
and ‘remember’ the response of that individual by means of a cookie. It is then possible to
address the individual once more in a way that takes into account his or her unique response.
In retrospect there seems little to suggest that this is any less formulaic and subject to the
supervision of specialists than the ‘4 Ps’ approach that Grönroos attacked a decade earlier.
The reality of database marketing in the real world to date is that it fails to live up to the
ideal mentioned above (cf. Fournier et al., 1998). Rather it summons to mind the myopia
that Levitt (1960) mentioned all those years ago. The technologies may be new, e.g. the
crude use of databases, contact techniques such as the use of remote diallers, sPAM emails,
coupled with the development of remote ‘customer service’ centres. But the underlying
motive seems to be depressingly similar to that which Levitt warned against all those years
ago: the pursuit of efficiency over effectiveness.
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