Relationship Marketing Report: Morrisons' CRM, Trust, and Influence

This report discusses relationship marketing with a focus on customer relationship management (CRM) and its importance for Morrisons, a major UK retail supermarket chain. It explores how Morrisons prioritizes customer engagement, trust, and loyalty over short-term sales goals. The report covers the CRM value chain, differentiation of products and services, evaluation of customer services, driving factors and enablers of relationship marketing, sales force automation, and the development of trust and influence on consumer buying behaviors. It emphasizes the importance of building long-term relationships through excellent customer service, offers, and discounts to influence purchasing decisions and ensure sustainability in a competitive market. The analysis highlights Morrisons' efforts in utilizing online platforms, social media, and word-of-mouth referrals to enhance customer relationships and brand image through ethical trade practices and sustainability initiatives.

Running head: RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
Relationship Marketing
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Importance of relationship marketing for Morrisons.............................................................................3
CRM value chain...............................................................................................................................4
Differentiation of products and services................................................................................................5
Evaluation of customers' services..........................................................................................................6
Driving factors and enablers of relationship marketing.........................................................................8
Sales force automation.....................................................................................................................11
Development of trust and influence of consumer buying behaviours..................................................12
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
The report is prepared to discuss about the relationship marketing focusing the major
aspects of customer relationship management or CRM to prioritise on the high level of client
engagement and creating a sense of trust and loyalty among them rather than focusing on the
shirt terms goals such as acqusitions of customers and sales revenue to be achieved. The case
study of the business organisation named Morrisons has been considered here, which is a
major retail supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. The company has been operating all
over the world and has an operating income and revenue of GB£468 million and GB£16,317
million respectively. Rather than putting efforts to acquire more consumers and aiming to
achieve higher growth in sales, Morrrisons has ensured development and implementation of
various relationship marketing campaigns to keep them informed about the kinds of products
and services delivered to them and allow them to make better decisions during any kinds of
purchases (Groceries.morrisons.com 2019). This will enable the company to achieve the long
term goals and objectives, furthermore ensure that trust and loyalty are established among
their minds, which influences their consumer buying decisions and behaviour and can allow
the company to sustain in the competitive marketplace.
The relationship marketing is a kind of approach to sales that has focused on the
development of long term relationships, which can benefit both the business and its clients.
The relationship marketing aspect includes developing a sense of trust and loyalty among the
clients by delivering excellent customers’ services and even additional offers and discounts to
influence client purchasing behaviours. The Customer relationship management or CRM, on
the other hand, enables use of a computer system for the collection of customer related data
and information, furthermore ensure using those to interact with the customers and gain better
scopes to improve marketing, sales and customers’ services assistance.

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Importance of relationship marketing for Morrisons
There are multiple benefits of managing the relationship marketing, among which, the
most important is the development of trust and loyalty among the customers. The build, like
and trust factor are established among the clients by Morrisons with the help of assessment of
their buying attitudes and behaviours. The company has largely focused on the differentiation
concept, which has been marketed to the clients through campaigns for allowing them to
acquire information about the products and services to be delivered to them or they are
accessible to (Peck et al. 2013). One of the differentiating approach that has facilitated the
relationship marketing could be the use of online websites and involving social media
platforms for spreading awareness about the products’ features, its quality, which should
allow them to know about whether their needs and requirements would be met or not.
The relationship marketing is not only facilitated with the marketing campaigns but
also with the help of word of mouth referrals while developing connection with the
customers. The customers should feel that are being valued by the organisation and thus
necessary information about the products and services are provided to them, which is aimed
at building marketing skills and at the same time, spread positive messages about Morrisons
through word of mouth promotions (Hennig-Thurau and Hansen 2013).
With the development of trust and spreading positive messages and information to the
client through relationship marketing campaign, Morrisons would be able gain more scopes
and exploit the business opportunities to ensure that the relationships established with the
clients can create a long lasting impression.
The needs and requirements of clients are assessed properly with the relationship
marketing approach and wider group of audience can be reached as well to gain long term
success. Not Only the products and services, but also the in-store experience should be better

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for enhancing the efficiency of marketing attributes, furthermore pay attention to the clients’
expectations wisely (Samaha, Beck and Palmatier 2014). This should also benefit the
business by developing trust with the relationship marketing techniques and assist Morrisons
to sustain in the competitive retail supermarket industry with convenience.
Figure: CRM value chain (Samaha, Beck and Palmatier 2014)
CRM value chain
The primary stages of the CRM value chain are Customer Portfolio Analysis,
Customer Intimacy, Network Development, Value Proposition Development and Manage
Customer Lifecycle.
Customer Portfolio Analysis- To maintain a good customer portfolio, Morrisons should allow
the customers to get more points for the purchases that have been made.
Customer Intimacy- To create a sense of intimacy and positive feeling among the clients, the
prices of products and services should be kept lowered for influencing the consumer buying
behaviours too.

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Network Development- It is also recommended to develop networks and use social media
platforms too for creating more awareness among the clients and ensure that positive
messages and information about the match and more cards are established
Value Proposition Development- Considering the fact that match and more card is aimed at
delivering value to the customers, it is recommended to increase the voucher value to an
extent for ensuring that the clients make purchases in more numbers for achieving the
increased voucher points , which can be used during the next purchase.
Manage Customer Lifecycle- To maintain a steady customer lifecycle, it is important for
Morrisons to make sure that from the beginning, the customers’’ demands and expectations
are assessed and then necessary approaches are undertaken to analyse their behaviours and
keep records of their purchases from Morrisons every time. This would allow for acquisition
of customers information, furthermore allow the business authorities to keep contact with
them and ensure higher level of client satisfaction.
Differentiation of products and services
From the case study, it could be understood that to improve the relationship marketing
effectiveness, Morrisons has brought differentiable features in the products and services
along with bringing changes in-store through promotions of greener approaches to marketing
and managing sustainability. This should also result in making the clients get good quality
and fresh items along with gaining positive mind sets about the company based on the
sustainability approaches undertaken for creating a positive impact on the environment (D.
Banker et al. 2014). The vertical integration has also enable differentiation of services and
marketing approaches for supporting the local farmers and producers to supply freshest
quality raw materials and resources and ensure production of good quality products, thereby
gain higher sales revenue and attain competitive advantage too.

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In terms of relationship marketing, for the purpose of developing trust and positive
relationships with the clients, Morrisons made sure to include bakers, fish mongers and
butchers who are quite skilled and knowledgeable about their profession. This is an
innovative way of serving the customers greatly by providing them with good quality
produces while at the same time, creating employment scopes and opportunities for many
people all over in multiple areas like supply chain, manufacturing department, Marketing,
information technology department, finance department, etc (Zehir, Can and Karaboga 2015).
All these approaches are drivers for business differentiation bot only to establish positive
mind sets among the consumers, but also with a shared vision and mission to gain
competitive advantage in business.
Furthermore, the product differentiation also has been inclined with fair and ethical
trade practices to make customers believe that the business delivers fresh quality produces
without compromising on the quality. The management of proper corporate governance,
ethical trade practices have also increased customers’ level of trust and loyalty regarding the
organisational activities to create better accessibility options for the clients (Osterwalder et al.
2014).
Evaluation of customers' services
There are various major components of the customers’ services delivered by
Morrisons for establishing good trust with the consumer sand make them remain loyal to the
company. The first and foremost component is the information about the products and
services that is spread and shared with the clients through management of websites,
catalogues and also by distributing leaflets (Cusumano, Kahl and Suarez 2015). The
published materials representing the products features, fresh quality supplies used along with
the sustainable approaches undertaken by Morrisons should allow the company to spread

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positive messages and information to the clients, thereby, allow them to navigate through the
stores easily and gain access to the products and services.
The customers’ services department must be responsible for handle queries of the
clients regarding any product or service, furthermore pay attention to their demands and
expectations with the involvement of specialist fishmongers, fresh quality suppliers, butchers,
etc. This would also allow them to make the customers acquire knowledge about the best
quality meat or fish that could be purchasing for catering to their needs and references
(Seiders et al. 2015).
The convenience component of the customers’ services enables setting up the stores
in good locations, which can be easily accessible by the clients and the same has been done
by Morrisons The company has already gain a good market share and with a string customer
base, the company has now focused on the long term objectives by paying special attention to
the customers’ requirements and kept interacting with them for raising their level of trust.
The post sales services include proper packaging procedures, responding to the
complaints made by the consumers along with exchange policies’ management and refunding
money in case of faulty product or service delivered. While shopping at Morrisons, the
customers could get a good experience and with the enhanced level of support provided by
the organisational staffs, tendencies are high for retaining the loyal clients and even attract
new ones (Sancha, Longoni and Giménez 2015).
Not only does the components of customers services are related to relationship
marketing, but also the way customers’ services are delivered. Morrisons’ principle of
“”establishing rewarding experiences which create an emotional relationship between the
customer and the store” has heavily focused on managing initiatives by offering them “Thank

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you”, “Hello”, “Hi” and “Offer” statements, which have also encouraged them to become a
part of the responsible shoppers of the business (Payne and Frow 2013).
Driving factors and enablers of relationship marketing
As stated by Gummesson (2017), to respond to the continuous changing business
environment, there must be sufficient knowledge and information about the driving factors
and enablers of this kind of marketing approach. The specific framework or model represents
the relationship between drivers and enablers and how it has been linked with the relationship
marketing, i.e., to form positive relations with clients through effective marketing techniques
and procedures (Gummesson 2017).
Figure: Drivers and enablers of relationship marketing (Gummersson 2017)
The major aspects that have driven changes and enabled putting efforts of relationship
marketing are high level of competition within the industry, change in consumer behaviours,
significance of services, changes made to the marketing procedures. The major drivers of
relationship marketing are as follows:
The high competition within the industry resulting from the technological
advancements and changes within the organisation is a major driver for relationship

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marketing. After analysing this framework, it is clearly understandable that the drivers are
responsible for influencing the buying behaviours of consumers and thus it will create
convenience for the company to create loyal customers and at the same time, facilitate the
marketing techniques with the use of advanced technologies (Clark and Melancon 2013). The
high competition level has led to diverse range of goods and services because of the
emergence of new entrants as well as substitute products by other retail chain supermarkets
that are identical to the products and services of Morrisons. Thus. The company has focused
on managing a differentiable brand name and image to compete within the marketplace as
well as facilitate the pricing strategies too to ensure good decision making regarding
purchases by the clients too. Miquel-Romero et al. (2014) also stated about several strategies
followed by Morrisons to manage a website and supportive functions too for delivering the
right information about the products and services to the clients, furthermore depend on the
internal resources and supplies (Miquel-Romero et al. 2014). This would also help in
implementing a proper marketing strategy aimed at the attraction of new clients and retaining
the existing ones. With the technological advancements, various search engines and software
applications are used by the clients to compare the prices of products of Morrisons with other
company product’s price to make a purchasing decision (Groceries.morrisons.com 2019).
The consumers’ tastes, preferences and purchasing behaviours change from time to
time, which requires proper analysis by interacting with them. Payne and Frow (2017) put
stress on the technological significance for distribution of technology along with technologies
influencing the production process based which, the demands and expectations of clients are
understood considering their changes in lifestyle conditions and demographic changes too.
Morrisons has assessed the buying behaviours of consumers and found that the customers are
more inclined nowadays towards greener approaches and sustainability management, because
of which, it is essential for the company to differentiate the products and bring in

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environment friendly items that can cater to their needs as well as promote good health and
wellbeing (Payne and Frow 2017). By analysing the information, the consumers are no longer
considered as targets of marketing approaches, rather as stakeholders who can drive the
business relationship with theirs and the performance too.
The importance of services here means how significant the fresh produces can be to
drive consumer buying behaviours as well as for promoting good health and wellbeing. The
level of qualified services delivered signify the potential of Morrisons and thus the
information to be delivered to the clients have been categorised into transmutability,
indestructibility and reproducibility. The demands for sustainable produces and sustainable
manufacturing units are growing constantly, which has also made Morrisons to manage
livestock production properly and work with the farming community, fishmongers, butchers,
etc. to deal with complex issues (Beck, Chapman and Palmatier 2015). Although the
company has managed sustainable production, it has also made customers informed about the
sustainable approaches undertaken to produce the goods and about the entire supply chain.
This should make them believe that the company has focused on their health and wellbeing,
furthermore gain access to good quality cheese, milk items, chicken, fish, lamb meat, etc
(Belanche, Casaló and Guinalíu 2013).
Increased importance on long term commitment and relationships has allowed
Morrisons to implement a customer relationship management or CRM system to acquire
knowledge about the clients and deal with the marketing management issues. Use of emails
and involving social media has also created new opportunities for the business to become
tech savvy and allow the clients to provide feedbacks and opinions regarding the services,
based on which, changes should be done and the loyalty of clients could be retained easily
(Jones et al. 2015).

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The major aspects that enabled effective relationship marketing are technological
advancements, which improved the customer oriented information flow through the data
warehouse concept. Considering the business-to-consumer or B2C segment, new mobile
technologies and cloud computing have enhanced data storage and retrieval capabilities,
irrespective of time and place. With the technological integration in the overall marketing
concepts, it can be considered as a major enabler for successful customer relationships and
relationship marketing too (Gummesson 2014).
Nowadays, trust and loyalty result when the company is capable of delivering services
that the clients expect. The customers have high buying power and thus it is their will to share
personal information. The company aims to change the self-conception of clients and
suppliers to ensure that not only the products and services, but also their personal information
and information about their needs are considered as values that should be changed or shared
to improve relationships (Groceries.morrisons.com 2019).
To create greater reach and establish relationships quickly, the business should
respond to the queries of clients and interact with them through emails, social media
platforms to enhance the customer retention level (Tingchi Liu et al. 2014). The
organisational flexibility is another major asset to deal with the changing business
environment and keep close interactions with the clients to enhance the level of trust.
Sales force automation
The sales force automation system enables automated procedures for incorporating
and improving the business processes related to client administration and sales estimation.
The four major functionalities of the software system include management of customers and
deals, managing leads, accelerate the production level and managing the insights.

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The SFA system should enable implementing CRM and manage the clients by
keeping good relationships with them. This would be possible with the management of
contacts through emails, social media platforms to create new scopes and opportunities,
furthermore manage personalised campaigns to monitor the engagement of clients. The leads
are sales that the company has achieved till date and it needs to be compared with the desired
sales to be achieved in the next few months. The smart phones should be used as portable
sales equipment where the Salesforce mobile application is present and this would help in
monitoring the calls, sales performance and even respond to leads effectively. The
management of insights should enable the SFA to manage the demographics and ensure that
the match and more cards are easily accessible to more people who makes purchase of the
products and services of Morrisons. It would not only generate leads but could also facilitate
the management of delivery of match and more cards to more people for making them easily
access the products and services.
Development of trust and influence of consumer buying behaviours
As stated by the CEO of Morrisons, development of trust is critical to the success of
relationship marketing and thus it can help in understanding their behaviours and
expectations. The trust building is based on various components including the consumer
orientation, where the customer services department put emphasis on the consumers’ interests
while the competence means the skills, knowledge and expertise of the business to meet the
clients’ expectations. The dependability means effectiveness of actions undertaken while the
candour represents the messages and information delivered to the clients, which are supposed
to be credible and true (Wolf and Sacks 2013). To develop trust, the relationship marketing
aspects play vital roles and these have been improved with the use of telephonic

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conversations with the clients, email assistance, 24*7 chat, live marketing tests and even
preparing expense plans for the routine customers (Groceries.morrisons.com 2019).
“If we listen very hard to customers they can give us a lot of clues as to what they value and
find unique about Morrisons. From that emerges the identity.”
-Morrisons CEO David Potts
Morrisons has emphasized on the areas where customers prefer fresh quality foods
and thus the supermarket has made necessary changes and improvements. This could enhance
the stock level on shelves and keep customers knowledgeable about the availability, special
offers, discounts and sustainable approaches followed to produce and deliver the goods. The
tie up with Capgemini has allowed Morrisons to use the new CRM system for enhancing
focus on customers and gain competitive advantage (Pappas 2016). The management of data
and information has been easier with the help of personalised offers, discounts, introducing
wide range of new products and effective marketing techniques. The digital marketing has
been further facilitated with the use of analytical tools and by using social media platforms to
communicate with the clients. By gaining instant access to the customer data and
information, the Salesforce at Morrisons would understand the things that mostly matter to
them and are valued by the clients. It should also assist the supermarket to gain milestone of
digital transformation and implement customers’ centric business strategies for the formation
of trust and creating better accessibility options for the clients too (Andorfer and Liebe 2013).
With the help of Utility services by Morrisons, the company focused on the repairing,
maintenance and provision of network infrastructure across many customers all over the
world. The operational teams and Salesforce teams have connected with the customers via
emails and chat to minimise communication disruption and become more responsive (Teng

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and Wang 2015). This is an innovative approach to customer relationship management that
can allow the company to respond to customers’ queries and provide relevant solution to
them considering their needs and expectations to be met properly. The Utility services are
synchronised with the customers’ services to improve the relationships with customers and
work accordingly to understand their needs and fulfil those effectively, furthermore achieve
the desired health and safety performance and attaining trust from them too (Girchenko,
Ovsiannikova and Girchenko 2017). All these aspects are responsible for building trust and at
the same time, influence consumer buying behaviours largely.
Conclusion
Considering the report focused on relationship marketing, there could be multiple
benefits such as development of trust and loyalty among the clients and delivering the right
messages and information to clients. The product differentiation had facilitated the marketing
approaches by making customers understand the importance of it while the major
components of customers’ services included post sales reviews, convenience of stores,
delivery of information, etc., which were also responsible for delivering best quality
customers’ services. The factors that drive relationship marketing included changing
behaviours of clients, increased importance of services, high competition level and changes in
marketing activities. The technological advancements done through implementation of CRM
and Utility services could also be considered as vital to the success of Morrisons’ relationship
marketing.

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