The Relationship Marketing Concept
Increasingly, a key goal of marketing is to develop deep, enduring relationships with all people or organizations that could directly or indirectly affect the success of the firm's marketing activities. Relationship marketing has the aim of building mutually satisfying long-term relationships with key parties-customers, suppliers, distributors, and other marketing partners-in order to earn and retain their business.
Relationship marketing builds strong economic, technical, and social ties among the parties.
Relationship marketing involves cultivating the right kind of relationships with the right constituent groups.
Marketing must not only do customer relationship management (CRM), but also partner relationship management (PRM) as well.
Four key constituents for marketing are customers, employees, marketing partners (channels, suppliers, distributors, dealers, agencies), and members of the financial community (shareholders, investors, analysts).