Relationship Marketing: Building Customer Loyalty and Brand Value

This blog post provides a detailed exploration of relationship marketing, defining it as a customer-centric approach focused on long-term relationships rather than transactional sales. It contrasts relationship marketing with traditional marketing, highlighting its emphasis on building brand loyalty and encouraging repeat business. The post delves into various aspects of relationship marketing, including partner, influencer, referral, employee, and affiliate marketing. It showcases examples from companies like Ikea, American Airlines, and Dell, illustrating how they implement relationship marketing strategies. The blog also outlines the advantages of this approach, such as improved reviews, increased feedback, and greater word-of-mouth marketing. Furthermore, it covers the implementation of relationship marketing strategies, emphasizing personalized service, engaging with customers on their preferred platforms, offering rewards and incentives, and collecting continuous feedback. Finally, it provides a glimpse into related career paths like human resource and brand managers.

1
Blog: Relationship Marketing

2
What is relationship marketing?
July 17th, 2019
It is first defined as a marketing form that is developed from direct response
marketing campaigns which emphasize consumer satisfaction as well as consumer retention,
rather than focusing on the transactions sales. Furthermore, relationship marketing is quite
different from the other forms of the marketing in that it recognizes the long-term value of the
consumer relationships as well as extends communication beyond the sales promotional
messages along with the intrusive advertising. Relationship marketing is continuously
evolving as technology is opening more social and collaborative communication channels
with the growing mobile and internet platforms. It consists of the tools for managing the
relationships with the consumers that goes beyond the consumer and demographics service
data. Therefore, relationship marketing includes the efforts of inbound marketing, social
media, and PR as well as application development. Relationship marketing stands in contrast
to the traditional transactional marketing approach and its main focus is on enhancing the
number of individual sales as much as possible.
On the other hand, companies combine the elements of both transactional and
relationship marketing, however, the consumer relationship marketing is starting to play one
of the most vital roles for a lot of companies. If someone is not investing their resources and
time into the relationship marketing then they may not want to consider it. Besides
relationship marketing tends to focus on most of the consumers that a company already have,
rather than devoting each and every efforts in terms of drumming up in the new business. It is
one of the long strategies that have one of the main aims for building loyalty of the brand,
creating strong connections of the consumers and encouraging repeating, regular business

3
from a firms existing clientele. Furthermore, if it is done right then it can help a firm for
creating brand ambassadors.
Traditional marketing vs. relationship marketing
Relationship marketing is quite less transactional when contrasted with the traditional
marketing. It is not laser focused on making one conversion or closing a sale. Besides,
relationship marketing is all about developing strong, long-term relationship with the
consumers that already exists. It in return encourages for repeating business rather than just
one-off purchases. Relationship marketing is managing the consumer portfolio of a company
and building the business relationship that is long-term. The traditional marketing is manages
the product portfolio of a firm, modifying and setting marketing mix parameters for achieving
optimal 4 Ps. Traditional marketing consists of the non-personal advertising, image and brand
management. Besides, relationship marketing includes the personal communication and
developing an identity of a trusted supplier. Traditional marketing is also found out to have
less commitment when it comes to meet the expectations of the consumers. On the other
hand, relationship marketing have huge amount of commitment for meeting the expectations
of the consumers.
Relationship marketing consists of the following 5 segments in it:
Partner marketing- It is paying a fee or commission to the firms such as resellers,
distributors, agencies as well as the other third party organizations for promoting sales and
leads.
Influencer marketing- It is a present up-to-date take on affiliating marketing, capturing
following in particular niches, empowering for driving revenue and awareness for their brand.

4
Referral marketing- It is a practice of using some of the rewards for motivating passionate
consumers along with the advocates for directly referring their networks to the respective
brands.
Employee advocacy- The self-promotion done by a business with the help of their team for
raising awareness for their brand and also the brand gets exposure that is positive.
Affiliate marketing- The transaction that takes place between the company along with the
entity with a financially driven and passive relationship where the business tends to receive
leads or the consumers in exchange for the monetary incentives.
Who employs relationship marketing?
There are a lot of companies who have something to gain in terms of developing long-
term relationships with their potential consumers. The businesses that are small tend to serve
regular consumers and it also makes some effort for drawing the new consumers. On the
other hand, the larger companies tend to invest the most for carrying out the sophisticated
campaigns with regards to the relationship marketing. Besides, in some of the biggest firms,
relationship marketing is mainly a strategy that affects each and every department with a
purpose of the client facing. Furthermore, the leaders of the industry continuously face the
cut-throat competition from their new competitors and they claim that higher-quality goods
and services are provided by them. It is quite evident that the companies must make it a
strategy that they will be holding tightly on their existing consumers. Therefore, that by this
way they will be able to maintain their position at the top of the industry.
Most prominent examples of relationship marketing
Direct recruitment- The direct marketing mail marketing organizations tends to send the
handwritten birthday cards to their clients along with the associates each and every year. It is

5
quite simple, personal touch helps the clients for feeling that they are cared by direct
recruitment in terms of human beings rather than just consumers.
Ikea- They is one of the greatest furniture making companies in the entire world and they
have got a loyal base of consumers. When the firm the front in their building catalog, then the
loyal consumers of the company considered internet for lodging their complaints.
American Airlines- It maintains a flyover program that is frequent and it also rewards the
consumer’s loyalty with giving those massive discounts, flying free of cost, and other
discounts.
Vyavanse- They are the company who made one of the most popular ADHD drug created an
online portal that consisted of the forums, videos, mobile applications and expert articles for
helping the people who suffers from the ADHD. The makers of the drug created one of the
places for their consumers for communicating and gathering that was connected back to the
firm.
Dell- This Company created a special online store entirely for their high volume corporate
consumers. The company was able to expedite a lot of hassles that is faced by the corporate
buyers by tailoring the ordering process to the particular needs of the consumers.
Advantages of the relationship marketing
One of the main aims of the relationship marketing is creating consumer loyalty and
secure lifetime custom. The companies tend to invest in the relationship marketing programs
because the costs will be quite less compared to the benefits received by the relationship
marketing campaign.
Some of the most notable benefits of the relationship marketing are as follows:

6
 Great reviews- It has been observed that the relationship marketing is keeping the
consumers happy. If the consumers are happy then it simply means that they will be
giving magnificent reviews that will in return help the firm to attract other consumers.
If the reviews are positive then it can have greatest impact on the business.
 More feedback- Consumers who develops a relationship with the companies then they
will be sharing their opinions. If they trust the business then they will be expecting a
business to listen to them. It will be motivating them to tell the business about the
opportunities they see in terms of enhancing the services or the products.
 A lot more word-of-mouth- Individuals tends to trust their family members and
friends opinions. If a business get a consumer for liking the brand enough for
recommending it to others. For instance, an individual have recruited a marketer more
effective than anyone on their employees and the individual do not have to pay the
marketer.
 The consumers that are loyal are quite likely to accept the increase in the price
because they are loyal to the business and trust their services and products
Implementing the relationship marketing strategy
It can be said that relationship marketing is completely based on the consumer
experience management tenets, which tends to focus on enhancing communications of the
consumers for fostering the brand loyalty in a better manner. Besides, this type of
communications can still take place in individual or over the telephone; much of the
relationship marketing has taken to the website. With a huge amount of information on the
websites as well as huge amount of using the social media, most of the consumers expect for
having easy, tailoring accessing towards the details about the brand and expect the
opportunity for influencing services and product through posts of the social media as well as
the online reviews. In the recent times, relationship marketing involves creating a two-way

7
communication between the business and the consumers, tracking the activities of the
consumers along with providing best information to the consumers with regards to those
activities.
For instance, an e-commerce site may consider tracking the activities of the
consumers by allowing them for creating the profile of the users so that their information is
saved for visiting in future, as well as so that the website can push great quality of
information to them next time. The visitors of the website may also be able to sign in via
some of the social media channel that will allow them a user experience that is simple and it
will also connect them towards the social media presence of the brand. The social CRM tools
go a lot more ahead for extending the relationship marketing into the social media sphere. It
will be allowing the firms for more easily respond and monitor towards the consumer issues
in the channels of the social media which will be helping the companies for maintain a brand
image that is positive.
Relationship marketing strategy
Provides consumer-focused and personalized service- when a company is creating a
relationship marketing strategy and when the business is engaging with the consumers then
their main concern will never be focused on the service or product. Besides, the company
must create some of the channels for the direct support whenever the consumers’ needs any
kind of help. By meeting the consumers where they want to be met the company is providing
willingness for helping them despite the hassles it may entail for the entire business process.
Engaging with the consumers where they are- It is an absolute necessity for a business for
doing their research for learning which platforms are most popular for their demographic.
Furthermore, by reaching to these particular channels the company will be highlighting a
level of understanding that will be motivating the consumers for interacting with the brand.

8
Offering rewards and incentives for the loyalty of the consumers- In order to cultivating a
long-term relationship with the consumers and for creating a lasting brand loyalty it is quite
important for the business to continuing for engaging with the consumers even after the
products are purchased by them. The business what they can offer them when they have
become consumers and they want to get more discounts or even they want to get
recommendations that are personalized with regards to their preferences.
Collecting feedback on a daily basis- It can be said that a relationship works in a two way
manner. The business needs to ask few questions as this particular information is quite vital
for making sure that they are continuously enhancing their relationship marketing strategy so
that the company is able to fit the needs of the particular needs of the audience.
Careers in the relationship marketing
The following are some of the careers in the relationship marketing:
Human resource manager- They are the individuals who are responsible for hiring, recruiting,
as well as training each and every workers of a company. Besides, a huge part of the
relationship marketing consists of training the employees on the most effective ways for
communicating with consumers. The human resource manager will likely to lead this training
and will be helping the company for instilling a culture that will be reaching towards the
consumers.
Brand managers- The brand managers are mainly the individuals that supervise and organize
all of the marketing that accompanies a particular brand. Furthermore, they are not at all
focused on marketing the entire company or an individual product. This focus is on the
brands and the public images of the brand. Everything will be done by the brand managers

9
that are in position and power of the brand as an important element to the identities and lives
of the consumers.
Sales associate- It is not necessary for them to have a degree in marketing but if they have
one then it will be considered to be useful for them. There are some of the common strategies
shared between marketing along with selling. The sales associate needs to understand being
the face of a firm what is actually needed by a consumer and how they can deliver it in a best
manner. It is an entry level job mainly available to the individuals who has less amount of
experience.
Importance of relationship marketing
Relationship marketing is important because it helps an individual not only getting
new consumers but keeping them once the individual haves them. Firstly, relationship
marketing tends to help a business for maintaining proper relationships with their suppliers.
There is enhancing awareness of benefits that needs to be gained by working together for
meeting the needs of the final customer. The relationship marketing tends to help a business
for forming some of the strategies for enhancing the relationships with the suppliers.
Secondly, relationship marketing also consists of having close relationship with the
individuals who tends to supply human resources to a company. The service companies needs
to cultivate the long-term relationships for making sure that they receive both right quality
and quantity of the workers. Thirdly, when an individual of a company tends to build some of
the relationship marketing skills then they tend to open the door for a huge amount of
opportunities in the business as a personal connection is likely to leave a long-lasting
impression.
Fourthly, following the model of the relationship marketing can be a difference being
in a long-term success. Listening between the lines as well as thee active listening are one of

10
the most important benefits of the person-to-person relationship marketing that can get lost
easily in the entire world of business if a business is not paying attention. Fifthly, with the
help of the relationship marketing a business can quickly and easily develop their innovative
style. It gives a company enough space for learning about the needs of the consumers, and
developing trust with their own techniques. Business has to alter their focus and concentrate
with regards to building relationships with the individuals in terms of building good
relationships that will generate long-term profits. Sixthly, relationship marketing also
provides one of the main elements for retaining the consumers and it also involves giving
social and financial benefits along with the structural ties to the consumers. Lastly,
Relationship marketing is managing the consumer portfolio of a company and building the
business relationship that is long-term. Relationship marketing is managing the consumer
portfolio of a company and building the business relationship that is long-term.