Principle of Marketing 4th Semester

Unit 1         Detail on Relationship Marketing

•  Relationship Marketing:-

1.  Concept

Relationship marketing is a facet of customer relationship management (CRM) that focuses on customer loyalty and long-term customer engagement rather than shorter-term goals like customer acquisition and individual sales. The goal of relationship marketing (or customer relationship marketing) is to create strong, even emotional, customer connections to a brand that can lead to ongoing business, free word-of-mouth promotion and information from customers that can generate leads.

Definition

Marketing activities that are amid at developing and managing trusting and long term relationships with large customers. In relationship marketing, customer buying patterns,profile and history of contacts are maintained in a sales database and an account executives is assigned to two or more major customers to fulfill their needs and maintain relationship.

Relevance of Relationship Marketing:-

a. Build the Know, Like and Trust Factor:- To consider the importance of

follow through with your know, like and trust factor, start by thinking about your own shopping habits, as a consumer. These days, online, will you buy from a complete stranger? Will you purchase something from a random website you’ve landed on? Will you hire a consultant, coach or assistant that you’ve never heard of, worked with or seen?

Chances are the answer is a big NO. In today’s age of technology, we have the luxury of getting to know and deciding to trust the person or company behind each purchase. However, as business owners, this means that we MUST go that extra mile to consistently create our know, like and trust factor.

b. Word of Mouth Referrals:- Customers want to feel special and important,

because they don’t often get to feel that way in other areas of the life. This

is key to remember because customers rarely purchase products or services solely based on the products intended result. Deep down, they

are also asking themselves, “What will this do for me, or provide for me?”

The answer isn’t just the product results. The answer includes all of the feelings and desires that come with that product and the results. By building your relationship marketing skills, you fulfill those additional needs. You provide more than just a product or service, you provide an

experience. To create an experience, highlight your customer’s successes,

answer questions promptly (whether through social media, email or phone), and respond to concerns instead of reacting to them.

c. Create Business Opportunities:- When you build your relationship

marketing skills, you also open the door to more business opportunities because a personal connection experience leaves a a long-lasting impression. That fond memory which you created with your customer will cause you to come to their mind more quickly and frequently. Thus, when a friend of your customer asks for a business venture referral, your name will be on the tip of your customer’s tongue.

                   d. Stay On Top Of Your Audience’s Needs: -With a person-to-person

               relationship marketing model you can learn first-hand, and at no cost to you,                          what your audience MOST desires. Active listening and listening between the                         lines are two amazing benefits of person-to-person relationship marketing that                      can easily get lost in the sea of business if you’re not paying attention.

                 

                e. Add Your Own Flare:- In our new economy where JOB’s are unreliable, more and more people are going into business for themselves. In order to compete in this new booming, small business market, you have to STAND OUT. You need to have your own flare. Be unique. By instating relationship marketing, you can quickly and easily develop your unique style. It gives you the space to learn about your audience’s needs, and develop trust with your own techniques. You don’t have to fit yourself to someone else’s business model. You simply have to be yourself and respond confidently to your customers. Business has changed since social media has arrived on the scene. Businesses have to change their focus and concentrate on building relationships with people in order to empower their brand and build lasting relationships that will result in long term profits.

Practices

a.     Funnel passion:- Accept that great ideas can come from anywhere either from employees within the company or from customers and fans outside the company.

b.     Make marketing a conversation -- and don't take yourself too seriously. In other words, skip the hard sell -- or any sell -- when using social media tools to interact with your community

c.      Make your product your marketing. Look constantly for ways to make your product or service interesting enough for people to talk about to others

d.     Empower your customer -- usually the benefits outweigh the risks. we include our community in virtually all aspects of our business". They submit the designs, they vote on them, they critique them, and they buy the products. As a result, they have a vested interest and a sense of ownership in what the company does.

e.     Act human it's about treating your customers as you'd want to be treated. In keeping with that, we let folks at thread less speak to customers in a voice that is truly theirs, but also represents the company."