Relationship Marketing

Relationship Marketing
By Dr. Gomathi Viswanathan

EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT

In the early 1990s the concept of relationship marketing was formally introduced into the field of service marketing. And further the concept was also found applicable in the case of industrial as well as consumer products. As the concept of relationship marketing has emerged the focus has been shifted from transaction marketing to relationship marketing as under:

Transaction marketing - Relationship Marketing

* Focus on single sale - * Focus on customer retention

* Orientation on product features - * Orientation on product benefits

* Little emphasis on customer - * High customer service emphasis

Service

* Limited customer commitment - * High customer commitment

* Moderate customer contact - * High customer contact

* Quality is primarily a concern - * Quality is concern for all.

Of production - (TQM ).

NEED FOR RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

The aim of relationship marketing is to create strong, lasting relationship with core group of customers. It is to a firm's advantage to develop long term relationship with existing customers because it is easier and less expensive to make an additional sale to an exiting customer than to make a new sale to a new customer.

BENEFITS OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

The relationship marketing helps the customer on one hand and the service provider on the other hand.

The benefits which are associated with the customers are:

• Customers remain loyal and receive more value compared to the competitors.

• Customers have the sense of well being and quality of life as they have long term relationship with the service provider.

• Customer think that the service provider knows their preferences and have tailored services to suit their needs over a period of time and they do not want to change this arrangement they have remain loyal.

The benefits for the service producers are:

• Due to good relationship management the service provider gets committed and loyal customers, thus increasing the purchases, which in turn increase the profits of the company.

• Lower cost retaining the current customers cost much lower than making new customers as new customers attract advertising cost and other promotional costs, operating costs of setting up accounts and systems and cost of getting to know the customers.

• Free advertising through word of mouth.

• It is easier for the firm to retain the employees when the company has stable base of satisfied customers.
CONSTRAINTS OF CRM

CRM is not panacea for all marketing maladies. It has its own constraints.

• CRM is not for everyone. When the market consists of a myriad of customers and the unit profit margins are not much, for instance selling washing powders, basic marketing is enough. CRM is an apt strategy when customers are of long-time horizons and profit margins are much.

• CRM assumes that customers play a passive role in relationships. But in the networked world, they have the ability to play an active role in managing relationships. Now a-days the marketing is towards collaborative marketing, in which the company collaborates with customers and makes them an integral part of the company's marketing activities.

• CRM is mainly based on customer databases. The collection of data and storage of data for CRM comes in handy only. When the data collected is accurate and appropriate, is collected at a reasonable cost, analysed diligently, reported promptly in a lucid manner and kept secret from competitors. Simon London opines, "Data have little value on their own: They are useful only when they have context and relevance."

(2) RELEATIONSHIP MARKETING IN BANKING SECTOR

Introduction

In the past, customers were simple persons and were happy at whatever banks dished out to them. Over a period of time with the competition and technological improvements customers have become fully aware of their rights. They now demand nothing short of excellent and prompt services. And further expect improvements there on. In fact over a period of time customer service has become customer satisfaction and customer delight and it can be said what they look forward to now is customer ecstasy. Umpteen alternatives are available to enlightened customers and they choose only those banks that they consider best suites them.

Why customer Service?

A customer is the most important person who visits the premises of a bank. He is not dependent on the bank - rather the bank is dependent on him. He should not be considered as a rude interruption in work. Rather he is the purpose of the work. Further it must be realised that:

(a) It takes months to find and get a good customer but only seconds to loose one.

(b) It is easier to rectify a mistake than to go on arguing on a mistake with a customer.

(c) A satisfied customer brings in more customers and he is the best advertisement for the back.

Initiatives by Banks

Of late, banks have been taking a plethora of initiatives to reorient their basic customer service ethos. These include

• Emphasis on process reengineering for improving customers' terms of transaction.

• Shift from 'cost plus' pricing to competitive pricing of services.

• Progressive IT application for swift delivery channels

• Universal service obligation by creating 'bank within a branch' concept.

• Improving value chain for customers.

• Pursuit of TQM at operational and administrative units.

• Three pronged strategy of product innovation, product delivery and product servicing

• Focus on product augmentation as well as hybridization.

• Shift from a "selling" to "marketing" mode.

• Multiple platforms for swift redressal of grievances.
• Periodical rating of service quality in house as well as by external agencies.
• Enrichment of training calendar, with sharp focus on behavioral aspects of customer service.

Effective CRM: The Task Ahead

Any bank aspiring to grow in size, diversity, profitability and clientele base must adopt a four fold strategy. These relate to

1. Acquiring new customers more cost effectively.

2. Increasing revenues from existing clientèle.

3. Increasing retention rates, especially among high value clients.

4. Reducing the cost of sales and servicing.

Suggestions

For a better customer service, banks should emphasis on :

• Increasing the volume of business by extending working hours with the use of technology

• Widening the clientèle base by providing anywhere, anytime and any channel banking service to the customers.

• Increasing the number of delivery channels like ATM banking, phone banking etc.

• Improving service quality and operational efficiency.

• Improving management information system to use data as a business intelligence fool.

• Enhancing cross selling of products to existing customer.

• Service culture is to be developed among the staff. Human Resource Development standards should be maintained in the recruitments at all levels.

Conclusion

Banks, in the days to come, have to provide their broad based service package in the midst of stiff competition. To ensure their competitive edge in future they have to fight with rivals in terms of quality of their service. The challenges that lie before the bankers are four fold. First, they need to satisfy customer needs that are complex and difficult to manage. Second, they need to face up to increased competition from within the sector and from new entrants coming in to the financial sector market. Third, they need to address the demands based in supply chain. Finally they must continually invent new products and services to attract and retain the customer.

Dr.Gomathi Viswanathan

Use the Fun of Confectionery Products to Brand Your Business

Have you noticed that confectionery products have become a way to creatively express a company's brand name to the consumer? Organisations are constantly looking for innovative ways to brand their image and product offerings. When selecting a promotional concept, cost and effectiveness are two of the most important considerations. Confectionery products offer a fun way to customise your offerings to consumers or clients in a cost effective manner.

Confectionery products are something that almost every consumer loves. Children and adults of all ages love confectionery products. Chocolate, sour flavours, fun shapes, gourmet colours and even products that are unique are available for promotional branding. Also, retro candies have become increasingly popular with the Baby Boomer era, adding a new dimension to the choices for customising confectionery promotional products. With the ability to customise the design, the flavours and even the colours, confectionery promotional products offer a tremendous amount of brand flexibility to promote a corporate image.

The packaging for a variety of sweets comes in many different forms, and most are very adaptable to branding and look very effective. One of the forms of packaging that confectionery comes in are tins. You could have either small round ones called "clik clak" tins with a choice of 11 different coloured tins and 14 different fillings or there are slightly bigger tins available, which hold mints imperials or fruit drops. There are also cereal bars which are offering a healthier alternative to the confectionery promotional market, and again would be great item to have branded with your company logo.

Customised Options

You may select the option to use your company's logo or name on promotional confectionery products by having your company name embedded into the sweet. Or, you may simply choose to use your company's colours; either can prove to be a striking promotional aid. Some confectionery products will print your designs directly onto the candy, while others will customize the packaging. For example, you may choose to brand a container and then place corporate collared candy inside the container. Or, you may decide to print your logo directly onto chocolates in gourmet packaging. No matter which option you select, you will have fun designing what will seem like as an endless selection of promotional confectionery options.

Promotional confectionery products can be used as hand outs at trade shows, as corporate gifts, as a thank you to a new prospect or customer or just as a token of appreciation to a network contact. Be sure to select a few options to try over time, allowing you to see which receive the most favourable response when they are handed out.

Cost Savings

One of the most significant advantages of using promotional confectionery products is that they are extremely economical. You will be able to find confectionery products in almost any price range and almost any size. The most economical way to leverage confectionery products is by purchasing bulk candies to place inside customised containers.

Confectionery products are a fantastic way to promote your organization in a fun, creative fashion. And, who doesn't love confectionery treats!

Miles Lovegrove is director of Fluid Branding, the UK's largest supplier of Promotional Confectionery and Branded Confectionery at http://www.fluidbranding.com You can also find a wide range of Eco Friendly promotional products, including Recycled, Organic and Sustainable items at Eco Incentives. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Miles_Lovegrove

Game Playing and Marketing Games Offer you a Unique Way to Entertain -- and sell at the same time! by Paul Ashby

Whilst experimenting with social networks, user-generated content and on line video, marketers appear content to view games as little more than another advertising platform. The untapped potential of game playing lies in their ability to tell stories, thereby more closely linking brand benefits with game play and blurring the lines between brand and entertainment. Games, properly structured, fundamentally alter the customers perception to the presentation and content of your marketing messages thus making the advertisements themselves a source of meaningful information.

Games allow Brands to become engaging, interactive and entertaining -- thereby providing something of value in exchange for attention. Brands such as Persil, Birds Eye and Quaker Oats have relied on game playing to create narratives that consumers want to be a part of. In the process, they've done more than just break through the clutter, or better position themselves in consumer's minds.

Games remain one of the biggest untapped opportunities for marketers, for the simple fact that they are, indeed, engaging interactive and entertaining. Well-conceived games require users' active attention and enable them to drive the story line as they experience a world that can be entirely of a brand's making. Games represent a unique opportunity for brands to be the entertainment rather than just sponsor it.

So what do original games get you?

If you're Quaker Oats, you get year-over-year double-digit sales growth, as well as a marketing program that has generated significant revenue.

So what does this mean for marketers?

It demonstrates that there's a burgeoning mainstream audience increasingly receptive to branded entertainment in the form of original episodic games and willing to grant brands their attention in exchange for enjoyable experiences.

Games need to be implemented strategically. As with any marketing approach, objectives and performance expectations for game-based marketing need to be considered upfront. Here are some things to keep in mind: A game tends to work best as a component of an integrated campaign rather than an afterthought.

Original episodic games can counteract this imbalance by delivering a high level of play and replay value to consumers while putting the brand at the center of the experience.

So does a brand need to be interesting or provocative in order to make a good game? Absolutely not. All our examples show that basic games deployed and used well were effective at making a low-involvement category more interesting and engaging. And implemented properly, games could address many of the challenges facing financial-services companies -- building involvement, generating a prospect database, creating a sense of community, even delivering a positive brand halo.

Innovation requires risk. Being among the first to jump into a new medium is never an easy proposition for a marketer, but games offer a new and distinctive opportunity for brands to tell their stories to consumers -- and, in the process, to make themselves interactive and entertaining.

We must always remember that Television is an advertising medium, not a communications medium and, as television declines in the face of competition from the new media, conventional advertising will decline with it. Game playing is a substantially more effective way of marketing than one-way TV advertising.

People develop strong bonds when empathetic connections exist between parties involved in a relationship.

The term customer loyalty has become a mantra, but we've never read any words about the criticality of empathetic linkage in fostering customer loyalty.

That's because most marketing is still based on objective models which play down the importance of behavior. Objective marketing is more conducive to mental manipulation of consumers than to establishing empathic linkages.

Many Marketing Directors have told us all, time and time again, in so many words, "At the end of the day, marketing is a numbers game. To increase sales, you increase exposure to get an increase in the number of consumers in your traffic flow."

But protagonists of the various relationships marketing philosophies say things have changed.

Customers are defining marketing. That moves the discipline from its objective, numbers-defined foundations to a subjective feelings-defined foundation that some people are already calling "the experience economy," and others call "The Dream Society." Marketers have been trying to meet the challenges of the experience economy mainly with technology.

Personalization software such as offered by Net Perceptions and BroadVision and multitudinous products sold as customer relationship management (CRM) tools are all about: deployment of massive data base systems to capture as much details about consumers as possible to gain maximum advantage over their minds.

That is the prime intent of objective marketing models: conquest and control. Otherwise, what accounts for all the military metaphors used in marketing?

Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships. This can be successfully achieved through game playing.

Up until a few years ago advertising was the province of a privileged few to the passive many. Now the ownership of moving images has passed into the hands of practically everybody and the articulation of moving images has passed into the hands of everybody with access to a phone, laptop or digital camera. We can now have our say."

In essence, the behavior of the audience is moving from passive to active participation so that TV watching or listening to radio in the future will be a very different and less sedentary experience than it has been in the past 80 years. Ultimate power isn't with brand owners or even with broadcasters, and most certainly doesn't exist with the Advertising Agencies at all! It's with the viewer. And it's the on/off switch!

Game playing fundamentally alters your relationship with your customers and effectively cuts through all the problems experienced by marketing programs at the same time allowing customers to have their say.

Effective Marketing Ideas for Starting a Coffee Shop

by Tony DiCorpo
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More Details about starting a coffee shop business here.

Most of what I am going to talk about here is geared towards opening a coffee shop. However, it can be utilized and directed towards an established shop.

When I wrote my coffee shop business plan, I made sure I had specialty coffee marketing covered from many angles because most traditional marketing just does not work in the specialty coffee business. When starting a coffee shop, you should know what types of advertising and marketing are actually worth your money.

Outside of your regulars, coffee is an impulse buy because the customer saw your sign. Aside from your regulars, most folks do not set out to ‘go to the coffee shop' like they would to a restaurant (unless you ask them to so more on this later). You need a steady stream of customers outside of your normal morning commute business.

The morning commuters are your bread and butter, the rest helps fill in the revenue holes. These are your impulse buyers. They are going to come to you mainly via your sign outside, so get one that is AS BIG AS POSSIBLE. That is, as allowable by your city ordinance and landlord, without being tacky! The bigger the sign is, the more visible it is.

By branding your image, you are identifying your existence within your community. Be sure you have a unique logo. If you cannot design it, get one custom made by a professional! I have seen a lot of cheap looking logos that do not help the image.

Another step in branding your image is to secure your shop's name on the world wide web by registering the domain name. As for your website, get one! If you can do this on your own, more power to you here too. I know just enough to be dangerous but you can get a nice website, even with online sales capabilities done economically. Check around locally, I bet there are a few web gurus in your area.

Here is where you have the chance to have every customer take your name with them when they leave allowing others to see it. Whether you have sleeves custom printed or you use stickers and put one on each cup or protective sleeve, they are all part of your branding.

Press releases are an inexpensive way to tell the world what you are doing. A carefully crafted press release sent to the right person at the right news outlet can be the best form of advertising for you. Just be sure that whomever is on the press release as the contact person is actually available to be contacted.

Another great form of marketing is your use of tee shirts, caps and other wearable's. These are walking billboards for you courtesy of the folks that buy them. You will pay about $15.00 each in the end, but again the investment is very well worth it.

Where would we be without business cards? Think about it: how many people have you run into that do not have a business card for whatever it is they do for a living? Not many that I can remember. This is your time to tell everyone you meet that you are in the coffee business. Everyone you meet should get one of these and a few to spare. Do not be shy about handing them out!

Menus are a great example of simple marketing. These are the take out type so try to keep it simple. You can leave them at area businesses if they allow it. You can also put them on your counter by the checkout and anywhere else your customers will see and take them. Support materials are also a good way to advertise your products. You can usually get POS materials FREE from any supplier you are using. This goes for tent cards to put on your counter to full color posters to hang in your windows. Vinyl lettering on your vehicle is another form of advertising, and another type of moving billboard. Your vehicle will essentially become a moving billboard. Vinyl lettering can be gotten for your store windows too, which will be similar to your vehicle lettering. Check with the same source.

Word of mouth is an excellent source of marketing. Customers can be your biggest and best marketing source for you.

Make every effort that all customers are satisfied before they walk out of your door. You may never have the chance to do it again and everyone that the dissatisfied customer meets may be told of the unfortunate incident at your store. They may not come to your store if there was ever that chance they would. Talk to the world online via your blog. This has got to be the best invention since a website and the internet itself started. Where else can you talk about nearly anything and let the world read it? You may just develop a following not only locally, but around the world. Have event nights. This is great for weekends and ‘dead' times. Earlier, I spoke about customers coming to your shop if you asked them to. This is where you have that chance. Events that will bring in business are almost plentiful. It's been my experience that this coupon mailers are usually a waste of money in the specialty coffee industry. There are way too many coupons in most of these mailers and most recipients throw them out. I know I do.

Internet advertising is good if you can limit to advertising locally using your zip code. You can reach a captive audience on the internet. It's relatively inexpensive because you choose what to spend on each ad and only pay per click. So there are some easy, mostly economic ways to effectively advertise and market your place, whether you are starting a coffee shop or have an established shop. Remember, your customer service and quality will always have to be top notch but you can skimp on some advertising dollars by being crafty and conservative.

Tony DiCorpo is a coffee shop owner, operator, barista and entrepreneur. He is also a coffee shop business consultant. Tony has extensive experience in business and more than 20 years experience in sales, customer service and business management with special focus on start-up and entrepreneurship, marketing, public relations and website design and development. He has authored many articles on the specialty coffee business and a business plan package that can be found www.tonys-coffee-shop-business-plan.com

Contact the Author
Tony DiCorpo

More Details about starting a coffee shop business here.

Keywords: starting a coffee shop business, starting a coffee shop, coffee shop startup, start your own coffee shop, coffee shop advertising &marketing

Article Marketing -- Obtaining and Retaining Loyal Customers

Article marketing helps every business owner achieve their main objectives, obtaining and retaining customers. Through the simple process of crafting informational articles to post in a variety of locations, customers can locate your product line. In its present form, article marketing is primarily an online process. Article marketing actually began, though, in traditional newspapers and magazines. At one point in time, business owners were actually invited by print publications to craft a knowledgeable article on a subject for their publication. The business owner got free advertising, and the publication got a piece that might interest readers. These days, that doesn't happen quite as frequently in the print world, but in the world of online publications, there are dozens of places to publish your articles. Why Article Marketing? There are two primary reasons to consider article marketing. The first reason is that if your piece is properly optimized for search engines, users will find it when they type in a certain keyword string. That makes both your name and your piece more visible, increasing the likelihood that they will click-through to your site and your product line. The second reason you should consider article marketing is that it helps to create a sense of trust with your customers. If you're knowledgeable enough to craft an article on the topic, then customers may think that your product line is equally informative and worth the investment. The Key Components Should you decide article marketing is right for you, there are several things to keep in mind. * Choose the right keywords to focus on. You probably handled a bit of keyword research as you built your site, and the results of that research can be used in your article marketing campaign as well. Choosing the right keywords will increase your targeted traffic numbers. * If you're not a writer, consider hiring a ghostwriter. Most copywriting firms charge very little for article marketing products, and the right ghostwriter can help you sound intelligent with regard to your subject matter. Attempting to create an article when you can barely construct a sentence will just make you sound poorly educated to potential buyers. * A good resource box at the end of your article is absolutely essential. After all, few potential customers will know where to turn if you haven't offered them a strong resource box. There are four things that must be included in your resource box: your name, your site's URL, your USP (unique selling proposition), and your call to action. * Submitting your article to the right sites is also important. There are literally thousands of article marketing sites available these days, and proper distribution is a fairly important component to the process. Article marketing directly affects your bottom line by significantly reducing your advertising expenses. It is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get your message out to new and existing customers. Through the power of information, you can obtain and retain a very large and tremendously loyal customer base. Brad Lessard is the owner of EbizCommando, an online membership site specializing in helping people develop the fundamental building blocks of a successful internet business. For more information please visit http://www.ebizcommando.com Contact the Author
Brad Lessard

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More Details about article marketing tips here. Keywords: article marketing, internet marketing, articles, submitting articles

Tips On Using Articles As An Internet Marketing Technique Part 1

by Aiden Wangsa

Articles are a great internet marketing tool that you may have overlooked. Used correctly, article marketing is a powerful technique to help you sell the product or service you promote online. However, if you are new to internet business, you may not really know what to do to get started. Following are a few tips on using articles as an internet marketing technique.

The first thing you may be asking is what you should write about. This is a very common question, especially if you don't think you have a talent for writing. The good news is, you don't have to be a

professional writer to use articles as an internet marketing tool to help build your business.

Certainly you have written e-mails to your family, friends, and co-workers on many different subjects whether they were about your job, hobbies, or family fun. Most likely many of your e-mails had at least 250 words which is the minimum length required by most article directories. So if you can write e-mails, you can also write articles to help promote your internet business.

So to answer the question, you can write about the following:

1. Your expertise. What do you do for a living? What special skills or knowledge do you have, and how do you use them to help others solve their problems? Just be careful that you don't divulge any of your company trade secrets in your article.

2. Your hobbies or interests. Writing articles about these is one of the most powerful internet marketing techniques because if you are passionate about something, it's easy for you to tell others about it. You also won't get bored or regard writing about it as a chore.

3. The product or service you are selling online. This is quite obvious and should also be easy to write about since you have a pretty good idea about what you are offering.

Those are just a few suggestions to get you started writing your articles and use them as an internet marketing technique. However, there is one very important thing to keep in mind, and that is that your articles must be relevant to the product or service you are trying to sell. For example, if your product is related to fishing then your articles should also have something to do with fishing such as your last fishing trip, the biggest fish you ever caught, the best places to fish in your area, etc.

Writing articles is a technique to help you establish yourself as an authority in your market, as well as a tool to bring visitors (which are potential customers) to your business web site. Therefore, your articles should be interesting enough to make people want more from you. If you write about your product or service however, you should give just enough information to get people excited about it and trigger their curiosity to want to learn more about what you have to offer.

In the next article (Part 2) you will learn how you can still use articles as an internet marketing technique, even if you feel you are really not good at writing or you just don't want to write, and what to do next.

Aiden Wangsa is an internet business owner and webmaster. Listen to this Powerful Free Audio on his site and learn the one thing you must have to ensure your success in internet marketing.

Using Viral E-Books Effectively by Guido Nussbaum

Would you like to see your website visitors increased to a massive extent? Believe it or not, you can do this with a simple technique that uses an e-book and a little bit of good content. It is something that has been used for many years to consistently pull in traffic to a website and to keep coming in for a very long time. How exactly can you use an e-book in order to generate traffic? Many people think that you need to generate traffic in order to sell e-books but you can actually use them to your benefit in a different way.

The way that you would do this is through a method that is known as viral marketing. Just as a virus spreads from person to person, viral marketing spreads in much the same way. It really all comes down to being able to write an e-book that people are interested in to the point where they will spread the information and gladly pass it on, even without you asking them to do so. There are several ways for you to be able to do this but some of the most popular are by creating controversy or using something that is humorous.

Controversy is typically an easy thing for you to generate as people are always interested in different viewpoints, even if they disagree with them. A good example of this is some of the newscasters that you see on CNN. My father watches these programs on a regular basis and at times he simply hates the individuals that are on the programs. Just because he hates them, doesn't mean that he doesn't watch them. As a matter of fact, he will sit there and watch them just for the simple fact that he doesn't like them. You can create a similar type of controversy in an e-book and people will pass it on because they disagree with it.

If you are able to use humor in your e-book you may also be able to get people to pass it along. This can be a little bit more difficult than creating controversy and does not necessarily fit in with every niche. If your niche lends itself to humorous tales, however, you may be able to use this to your benefit by creating a viral e-book.

The best way for you to get the ball rolling with your e-book is to send it out to as many people as possible and ask them to pass it along. You would be surprised with how much this can get going if you send it out to 50 people that are interested in what you have to say and know people that are also interested in the same thing. The beauty of viral e-book marketing is the fact that once it gets rolling, you can begin working on another area, confident that this will continue to bring in traffic for a long time to come