Measuring and managing buyer‐seller relationship life cycles

TLDR: In this paper, relationship marketing is interpreted as a business strategy which is aimed at turning casual, discrete transactions between buyers and sellers into an ongoing relationship through tactical devices such as database marketing and loyalty programs.

Abstract: Relationship marketing has received a lot of attention recently as a “Big new idea”. Unfortunately, the term currently means different things to different people. At one extreme, it is seen tactically as little more than the creation and manipulation of databases, something that is almost synonymous with Direct Marketing. At the other extreme, relationship marketing is viewed as a philosophy that goes to the heart of business by putting customers — and their changing needs — as the focus of everything an organisation does. Instead of organising around brands, companies organise around the need to sustain the confidence of their customers and gain an increasing share of their wallet. In the research to be discussed here, relationship marketing is interpreted as business strategy which is aimed at turning casual, discrete transactions between buyers and sellers into an ongoing relationship through tactical devices such as database marketing and loyalty programmes.