THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING ...

THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING Manfred BRUHN / Sven TUZOVIC University of Basel Basel, Switzerland Abstract: While the concept of relationship marketing has been discussed intensively in marketing literature so far, there still seems a lack of specific guidelines on how to manage relationships. Relationship marketing does not only demand a systematic solution from a scientific view; moreover, evolving a systematic planning process is important in practice. Especially, since all sectors are now increasingly examining ways to gain competitive advantages through relationship-based strategies. This paper seeks to present a systematic planning process that is both based on traditional stages of the marketing process and on specific facets of relationship marketing. Highlighting some elementary conceptual foundations of relationship marketing, we will discuss the development of logical and sequential series of activities for the following phases: analysis, strategic direction, operational focus, implementation and monitoring.

The 10th International Colloquium in Relationship Marketing

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Over the last two decades relationship marketing (RM) has become a topic of great interest in scientific literature and to many organizations as well (i.e. Sheth and Parvatiyar, 2002; Hennig-Thurau and Hansen, 2000; Gummesson, 1999; Payne, 1995; Grönroos, 1994; Berry, 1983). With its origins in the industrial and Business-to-Business markets relationship marketing has extended also to service and consumer goods markets, e.g. in the last years many consumer goods companies have started to seek ways to develop stronger relationships with their customers. The term relationship marketing has been used to cover various activities, with a distinction made between its philosophical, strategic and operational dimensions (Palmer, 2002; Berry, 1995). While the concept of relationship marketing has been discussed intensively in literature so far, there still seems a lack of specific guidelines on how to manage relationships. Relationship marketing does not only demand a systematic solution from a scientific view (e.g. neither the domain nor the conceptual foundations of relationship marketing are fully developed yet); moreover, evolving a systematic planning process is important for practitioners. For instance, companies of all sectors are now increasingly examining ways to gain competitive advantages through relationship-based strategies (Payne, 2000, p.16). This paper seeks to describe relationship marketing from a management process perspective which is comprised of the following phases: analysis, strategic direction, operational focus, implementation and monitoring. That is, we present a systematic planning process which is based on traditional stages of the marketing process combined with specific facets of relationship marketing. Retaining the basic format of the marketing plan in use while adding relationship marketing dimensions seems reasonable (Grönroos, 2000, p.11), as it offers a “common format” for the implementation of the relationship marketing strategy. After highlighting some elementary conceptual foundations of relationship marketing, we will discuss the development of logical and sequential series of activities for each phase. The main topics of the relationship marketing management process include customer analysis within the success chain (profit chain), strategy planning on the basis of the customer relationship life cycle phases, the relationship marketing mix according to the understanding of the customer relationship life cycle (e.g. what specific instruments can be applied in the initiation, socialization, growth, maturity, imperilment, termination, and abstinence phase) and, finally, the (pre-economic and economic) monitoring actions that should be carried out proactively, so that the results can be applied to future planning measures.

THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

FOUNDATIONS

OF

The broad field of Marketing is interdisciplinary in nature with a theoretical foundation in various research fields that present a framework for marketing-relevant questions. The interdisciplinary character applies particularly to relationship marketing, where diverse theories from various origins can be used for investigating different aspects of this research field. Figure 1 illustrates an overview of the theoretical foundation of relationship marketing. As one can see, these theories can be related to three marketing paradigms: neoclassical paradigm, neo-institutional paradigm, and neo-behavioral paradigm (see Kaas, 2000). While the social penetration theory fulfills theoretical requirements for relationship marketing to a high degree, all other theories contribute only partly to the theoretical foundation (in more detail, Bruhn, 2002a).

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Fundamental theories are essential for building the framework of relationship marketing as a science, the development of relationship marketing as a management process, however, implies the consideration of some elementary conceptual foundations as well. In the following, we elaborate on these concepts in more detail.

Neo-institutional paradigm

Neoclassic

Theory

Authors

Focus

Value theory

Implicit application based on a series of marketing publications

Significance of quality, customer satisfaction, perceived value, and relationship quality within relationship marketing

Profit theory

Blattberg/Deighton 1996

Evaluation of customer relationships from a corporate perspective

Information economics

Klee 2000

Explanation of interaction uncertainties and derivation of strategies to reduce uncertainty

Ahlert/Kenning/Petermann 2001

Trust as success factor for services-based corporations

Klee 1999

Pre-conditions for an advantageous initiation of customer relationships

Grönroos 1994

Profitability of long-term business relationships

Jensen/Meckling 1976; Bergen et al. 1992

Elucidation of customer and employee behavior within customer relationships

Transaction cost theory

Principal-agent theory

Neo-behavioral paradigm

Psychological theories Learning theory

Sheth/Parvatiyar 1995

Clarification and influencing factors for the emergence of customer relationships

Risk theory



Fischer/Tewes 2001

Trust and commitment as intermediary variables for service processes



Cognitive dissonance theory

Socio-psychological theories Interaction / Network approaches

IMP Group 1982; Grönroos 1994

Structuring of interaction processes

Social exchange theory

Houston/Gassenheimer 1987

Emergence and maintenance of customer relationships; Evaluation, long-duration, and stability of customer relationships

Social penetration theory

Altman/Taylor 1973

Emergence and development of customer relationships

Figure 1: Overview of theoretical foundation of relationship marketing


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Relationship Life Cycle Concept The first conceptual foundation can be found in the relationship life cycle concept. In the past the life cycle concept, in general, has been applied primarily in the sense of product, market, and brand life cycles. However, with the transition from mainly product-oriented to more intensive customer-oriented marketing, it is logical to apply the life cycle concept also to the development of customer relationships (Stauss, 2000). That is, in the course of a customer relationship, both customers and sellers go through different stages which are independent of the relationship’s strength. The customer relationship life cycle, thus, describes idealized phases that occur regularly in the relationship over time, and enables conclusions to be drawn for relationship marketing on the basis of the relationship’s intensity. In general, this cycle can be classified in three core phases: customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer recovery (Stauss, 2000). •

The customer acquisition phase describes the initiation of a seller-buyer relationship and is comprised of the initiation and socialization phase. While the initiation phase can be seen as the precursor to transactions involving an exchange of goods between the seller and buyer, this phase ends with the first exchange of goods, thereby initiating the socialization phase. That is, both seller and buyer become familiar with each other. Since customer acquisition and familiarization entail start- up costs, this acquisition phase is generally uneconomic for the company.

•

In case of a positive development the buyer-seller relationship grows during the customer retention phase, which can be further separated into the growth and maturity phase (Stauss, 2000). In general, this phase is characterized by growing profitability for the company, e.g. Reichheld and Sasser (1990) analyzed the profit per customer in different service businesses (credit card organizations, laundries, wholesalers, and automobile servicing companies) demonstrating that customers become more profitable over time.

•

Finally, the third phase deals with customer recovery as the customer might terminate the relationship. In detail, this phase can be differentiated in the imperilment, dissolution, and abstinence phases. The imperilment phase refers to customers that, due to certain events, begin to mull over the idea of not using the seller’s products and services anymore. A decision is then reached in the dissolution phase to stop using the provider. The customer either openly cancels the relationship especially in case of a membership or just gives it up quietly. This leads to the abstinence phase where the customer refrains from using any of the providers’ products or services. The relationship could only commence again because of either customer-originated reasoning or due to recovery measures undertaken by the provider.

It has to be kept in mind, that the duration of phases cannot be defined precisely. For instance, for standardized products like daily- use consumer goods, the socialization and growth phases could be very short, whereas with customized services such as capital assets the phases are longer due to their heterogeneity and complexity. Yet, the customer relatio nship life cycle can be seen as a good clarification model that embraces a customer relationship in an idealized and explanatory form. As the customer relationship life cycle can be considered from both the seller and buyer perspectives, this duality in examining and explaining a customer

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relationship is a fundamental principle that an organization needs to take into account for all its relationship marketing activities.

Success Chain as a Management Principle The underlying idea behind the success chain (profit chain) is the meaningful linking of interrelated variables (e.g. Anderson and Mittal, 2000). The influences between them are illustrated within the chain, permitting structured analysis and derivation of actions (see Figure 2).

Company-external moderating factors • Heterogeneity of customer expectations • Dynamics of the market • Complexity of the market

• • • •

Relationship marketing

Variety Seeking Image Number of alternatives Customer search for convenience

Customer satisfaction

• Customization of products and services • Heterogeneity of products and service portfolio • Complexity of products and services

• Net present value of customers • Performance orientation of customers • Willingness to pay • Switching behavior

Customer retention

• Switching problems • Duration of contracts • Functional links of products and services offered

Economic performance

• Structure of customer information systems • Employee turnover • Pricing restrictions

Company-internal moderating factors Figure 2: Relationship marketing success chain

The fundamental structure of a success chain encompasses three elements: (1) corporate activities (corporate input), (2) impact of corporate activities on the customer, and (3) economic performance (corporate output). The links within a success chain are, however, not definitive. They can vary depending on the sector, customer, etc. In other words, a dependent variable is not 100 percent contingent on the independent variable. For instance, while assertions of a positive association between customer satisfaction and financial performance are commonplace, the results are not always conclusive. Furthermore, there is still no shortage of skepticism about the satisfaction-loyalty relationship. This is partly related to moderating factors, influencing both chain elements and their inter-relationships. The role of relationship marketing is thus to take these moderating factors into account in the realm of relationship activities as follows: For customer segmentation, it is necessary to identify those customer relationships for which the respective correlations are valid. The success chain can be applied only for these, thereby enabling relationship marketing to be setup profitably. Correspondingly, only for these relationships appropriate marketing strategies


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are to be developed and relationship actions confirmed. The final control phase refers to the monitoring of the relationship marketing measures that have been applied. That is, the measures taken are evaluated on their positive or ne gative impact, e.g. if they actually generate economic benefits along the success chain. If this is not the case it is necessary that, within the scope of the segmentation, a new relationship marketing direction is planned. As an outcome of these deliberations it is worthwhile to design relationship marketing with the help of a planning process.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING AS A PLANNING PROCESS While many sectors are increasingly examining ways to gain competitive advantages through relationship-based strategies (Payne, 2000, p.16), there still seems a lack of specific guidelines on how to manage relationships. relationship marketing thus calls for systematic decision- making behavior that can be achieved through a management process (e.g. Ryals, 2000, p.235-244). Figure 3 depicts the idealized relationship marketing process with classic phases for analysis, strategic direction, operational focus, implementation and monitoring (see for alternative marketing plans, Egan, 2001, p.209). Retaining the basic format of the marketing plan in use while adding relationship marketing dimensions seems reasonable (Grönroos, 2000, p.11), as it offers a “common format” for the implementation of the relationship marketing strategy.

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Analysis Phase of Relationship Marketing

Analysis phase

SWOT analysis External-situation analysis (Opportunity/Risk)

Internal-situation analysis (Strength/Weakness)

Goals of the success chain Customer segmentation in the success chain

Strategic Direction Phase of Relationship Marketing Strategische Steuerungsphase desRelationship Relationshipmarketing Strategische Steuerungsphase des Marketing Strategische Steuerungsphase des Relationship Marketing

Determination of strategy by phase Customer retention strategy

Customer acquisition strategy

Kundenrückgewinnungs Customer recovery strategy strategie

Derivation of business area targets and strategies MarktfeldMarket strategy strategien

Definition of business areas

Kundenrückgewinnungs Competitive-advantage strategie strategies

Determination of market participant strategies

Strategy phase

Primary network strategies

Competitortargeted strategies

Customer targeted strategies

Sales agent targeted strategies

Environment targeted strategies

Operational Focus Phase of Relationship Marketing

Derivation of instrument application by phase Customer acquisition

Customer retention

KundenCustomer rückgewinnung recovery

Derivation of phase-independent measures Quality management measures

Complaint management measures

Internal marketing measures

Implementation Phase of Relationship Marketing

Implementation phase

Implementation goals

Implementation phases

Implementation design Relationship structures

MarktfeldRelationship systems strategien

Relationship culture Kundenrückgewinnungs strategie

Control Phase of Relationship Marketing

Control phase

Control of preeconomic effects

MarktfeldControl of economic strategien effects

Integrated control systems

Figure 3: The planning process of relationship marketing (Bruhn, 2002a)


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Analysis Phase of Relationship Marketing The analysis phase of relationship marketing involves two main tasks: (1) the analysis of the company’s internal and external environment (SWOT-analysis) with the aim of target planning and (2) customer segmentation that is based on various levels of the success chain. For both tasks, it is particularly important to give due consideration to the customer relationship life cycle – comprised of the acquisition, retention, and recovery of customers – as well as to the success chain principle. While the SWOT-analysis provides a tool for companies to examine their current situation, target planning structures feasible goals on basis of the success chain. Relationship marketing goals are then derived accordingly at both the company and the customer levels. However, it has to be kept in mind that relationship marketing goals vary greatly with regard to potential, current, and lost customers. This becomes clear from an assessment of the success chains in the customer acquisition, retention, and recovery phases: •

During the customer acquisition phase marketing measures are put into action to kindle the customers’ interest in the company’s products and services to generate attention for and familiarity with them. Accordingly, the behavior related to the first purchase and information should be controlled to improve the resultant economic targets, while initiating a dialog and interaction with the customer.

•

During the customer retention phase the relations hip marketing measures serve to secure a positive perception of quality plus a high level of customer satisfaction, relationship quality, and commitment by the customer to the company. These psychological goals are supposed to help raise the customer retention level and generate positive word-of-mouth communication, both of which represent the basis for turnover and profits.

•

During the customer recovery phase, however, the focus is on determining the main causes for customer defections. One outcome can be the goal of improved quality perception and image enabling repeated stimulation of interests and preferences among lost customers. In this way, a first buy is achieved and can be repeated with reestablishing the relationship and avoiding negative word-of-mouth communication, all of which results in higher revenues and profits.

Furthermore, for guaranteeing customer specific activities a systematic customer segmentation is necessary on basis of the success chain. That is, the relationship marketing targets which have been derived before, are structured as separate success chains for the customer relationship life cycle phases. Using the appropriate success chain, a multi-level targeted segmentation can be based on the individual chain links (Bruhn, 2002a). The purpose is to highlight mainly those customers with whom the relationship marketing targets have been either well or poorly achieved. Additionally, the appropriate moderating factors allow the relevant chain to be used to identify grounds for any deficiencies in the success chain’s functioning (e.g. low customer retention despite a high satisfaction level). The segmentation can be based on either single success chain elements (intra -efficacy segmentation) or several success chain elements (inter-efficacy segmentation). Overall, customer segmentation represents a basis for individualized customer processing, which must be a part of relationship marketing. In practice, however, there is definitely a

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certain degree of mistrust of segmentation based on psychological attributes. This is explainable by the fact that a classical segmentation on the basis of aspects such as sociodemography is much easier to understand and the respective segmentation criteria are easy to measure. Nevertheless, since the classical attributes have little impact on the success of a customer relationship as compared to the success chain variables, customer oriented companies must look into how they could implement more effective customer segmentation instead.

Strategic Direction Phase of Relationship Marketing Relationship marketing strategies establish a framework of actions showing the path to realize the formulated targets. The strategic direction phase thus covers the determination of the strategic focus for relationship marketing. In general, these strategies result from various decisions on controlling corporate relationships and are fixed in the form of conditional, medium and long-term, global behavioral plans for the company’s strategic business units. As relationship marketing is not a replacement but rather an enhancement of traditional marketing, also its strategies cannot be totally isolated from classical strategic marketing approaches. That is, the strategic options for relationship marketing still rely on the 4Ps. However, in addition, the strategic relationship marketing approach becomes heavily relationship-oriented through a stronger customer focus on business relationships. As a result, three main strategic areas can be distinguished in this phase (Bruhn, 2002a; see Figure 4): 1. phase-driven strategies on basis of the customer relationship life cycle, 2. business area strategies, 3. market participant strategies. Phase-driven Strategies are based on the customer relationship life cycle. They indicate whether the company strives for customer acquisition, customer retention, or customer recovery. For each case portfolios can be derived highlighting specific strategic options for an organization (Bruhn, 2002a). When pursuing business area strategies strategic options include market segment strategies and competitive advantage strategies. As both strategic approaches cover a broad perspective, it is essential to examine the strategies from a relationship perspective. For instance, the appropriate competitive advantages involve the pursuit of relationship orientation as the primary competitive advantage, followed by more traditional competitive advantages (such as cost, quality, or brand orientation). Finally, with regard to market participant strategies, five specific strategic options have to be followed depending on the target group (customers, competitors, the sales agent, and the business environment). Furthermore, a networking strategy functions as the overlapping one taking all market participants into account.


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Phase-driven Strategies Customer acquisition strategy

Customer retention strategy

• Stimulation • Persuasion

Customer recovery strategy

• Solidarity • Dependence

• Restitution • Improvement

Business Area Strategies Definition of business areas

Market segment strategy

• Functions • Technologies • Customer groups • Regions

Competitive advantage strategy

• Market penetration • Market development • Product development • Diversification

• • • • • •

Relationship advantage Quality advantage Innovation advantage Brand advantage Cost advantage Value advantage

Market Participant Strategies Customer targeted Market handling • • •

Undifferentiated Differentiated Segment-of-one

Relationship handling • •

Active relationship handling Passive relationship handling

Competitor targeted • Avoidance • Cooperation • Conflict • Adjustment

Sales agent targeted • Avoidance • Cooperation • Conflict • Adjustment

Business environment targeted • Innovation • Adjustment • Resistance • Avoidance • etc.

Figure 4: Strategic options for relationship marketing (based on Bruhn, 2002a)

Operational Focus Phase of Relationship Marketing The operational focus phase deals with the instruments which organizations can use to apply relationship marketing in practice. While many companies still rely on the traditional marketing mix, the concept of relationship marketing requires a customer-centric view. That is, the marketing instruments applied have to be enhanced with the perspective of the customer relationship life cycle phases. As a result, it is necessary to develop a new systematic structure for these instruments. Instead of structuring the marketing instruments according to the 4Ps – and thus only one-dimensionally – which has some significant drawbacks (e.g. leading to a product-oriented focus), the customer relationship life cycle has to be added as a new dimension when designing a systematization for relationship marketing instruments. Figure 5 shows how relationship marketing instruments can be structured differentiating between phase-driven and phase-overlapping instruments.

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Customer Acquisition

Customer Retention

Initiation

Growth

Socialization

Maturity

Customer Recovery Imperilment

Termination

Abstinence

Product

Promotion

Price

Place

Quality Management

Complaint Management

Internal Customer-Orientation

Figure 5: Systematization of operational instruments for relationship marketing (Bruhn, 2002a)

The phase-driven instruments differ depending on the core area, that is, customer acquisition, customer retention, or customer recovery. For each phase, the respective instruments – that result in the most appropriate fulfillment of the tasks within the phase – are instituted for policies related to the 4Ps. Figure 6 presents a brief overview of particular tasks and possible instruments for the six phases that have been distinguished in the customer relationship life cycle. Attributes Tasks

Product

Promotion

Price

Place

Initiation - Persuasion - Stimulation

Socialization

Growth

- Acclimatization - Customization - Cross selling

Maturity

Imperilment

Termination

Abstinence

- Switching barriers - Efficiency improv.

- Error rectification - Persuasion (Creating added value) - Restitution - Stimulation (Recovery offer)

- Quality guarantees - Keeping - Customer - After sales the same integration services customer - Value added - Product tests representatives services - Product - Program palette standardization expansion - Package deals

- Bundling of products - Product standardization

- Product improvement - Substitute product

- Product customization - Taking on the handling of transaction formalities

- Product-based - Customer promotion training - Control of direct - Service recommendations numbers - Public relations - Events - Promoting communication between customers - Direct mailings

- Customer newsletters - Customer club - Customer workshops

- Exclusive promotion - Online promotion

- Customer training - Gifts

- Exclusive promotion - Customized promotion

- Price as a quality indicator - Special sales - Pricing transparency - Discounts

- Constant prices

- Pricing differen - Customer card - Price reductions tiation linked with - Value-based pricing discounts - Package deals - Taking advantage - Customer cards of willingness to linked with discounts pay

- Price reduction - Cash payment

- Choice of location

- Constancy in distribution

- Flexible distribution systems - Distribution customization

- Distribution customization - Reimbursement of distribution costs

- Distribution diversity - Distribution standardization

- Distribution improvement - Distribution presents

Figure 6: Overview of phase-driven relationship marketing instruments


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Besides these phase-driven instruments, the concept of relations hip marketing requires also the application of instruments that support the entire relationship life cycle of customers. Those phase-overlapping instruments comprise quality management, complaint management and internal customer orientation (Bruhn, 2002a). It is essential that these instruments are planned separately. The significance of these phase-overlapping instruments becomes apparent when considering the tasks in the various phases. For instance, high product and service quality is a prime prerequisite for customer acquisition (e.g. persuasion through quality), their retention (e.g. quality as the main determinant of retention), as well as their recovery (e.g. quality problems as reasons for defection). Thus, quality management as well as complaint management and internal customer orientation have to be planned for the whole customer relationship life cycle and not only for single phases.

Implementation and Monitoring Phases of Relationship Marketing In the implementation phase emphasis is laid on transforming the relationship marketing concept within a company. Any concept is worthless without systematic implementation, and to ensure overall success all employees have to be involved in this phase. A key assignment in implementing relationship marketing can be seen in shifting the perspective from an “inside out” to an “outside -in” outlook. Precisely due to the relationship marketing thinking, major changes may be required in internal operational processes. The spotlight thus is placed here on a modification of corporate structures, systems, and culture. Due to the complexity of implementation programs, it is reasonable to set down particular strategy implementation targets (Bruhn, 2002a). Since raising the relationship orientation of an organization is a multi-stage process (that is, initiation, enforcement, and implementation), each process phase has different targets. Yet, there are four sequential steps that are important throughout the whole process: 1. management commitment, 2. communication with employees, 3. setting- up of a project team to control the action programs, 4. employee commitment and transition to a learning organization. However, as there are numerous difficulties that can affect the successful implementation of relationship marketing in a company, corporate management also needs to create the right conditions within the company such that existing barriers vanish and customer orientation activities can take full effect. Therefore, great attention has to be paid to the development of customer-oriented organizational structures, management systems , and an appropriate corporate culture (Bruhn, 2002b). The final phase which is the monitoring phase involves comprehensive controlling of relationship marketing activities (Bruhn, 2002a, Bruhn et al., 2000). As organizations are faced with costs for those activities, it is vital to monitor positive or negative impact of relationship marketing. Initially, an evaluation is conducted of non-economic target variables like customer satisfaction. This is followed by measurement of economic target variables such as the customer lifetime value. Furthermore, integrated control methods can be used to investigate the effects of pre-economic and economic parameters jointly and interdependently.

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CONCLUSIONS While relationship marketing principles and practices date back many centuries (Palmer, 2002), it has achieved pre-eminence as a topic of academic and applied interest only during the past two decades. Since these early days, the term relationship marketing has been used generically to cover various activities, with distinction made between its philosophical, strategic and operational dimensions (Berry, 1995). However, there still seems a lack of specific guidelines on how to manage customer relationships. This paper seeks to develop relationship marketing as a management methodology (with analysis phase, strategic focus, operational deployment, implementation and control), in order to provide a means with the same universal and consistent basis for both scientific and practical problems. Many branches still have barriers that prevent the consistent implementation of relationship marketing. Its progress in numerous segments, on the one hand, is characterized by the repeated implementation of isolated relationship orientation elements. On the other hand, there is still enormous potential for advancement in many sectors. Since the initial experiences with relationship marketing were gathered just in the last 10 to 15 years, the relationship activities still tend to be partly rudimentary. In spite of all this, the underlying concepts of relationship marketing are recognizable though there is definitely need for further development and research. This advancement must take place not only in practice but also at the scientific level on theoretical, methodological, and empirical fronts.


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