Relationship Marketing and E-CRM: Strategies and Effectiveness Report

This report delves into the realm of relationship marketing and Electronic Customer Relationship Management (E-CRM), exploring their significance in fostering customer loyalty and long-term engagement. It investigates the evolution of relationship marketing, tracing its roots back to the economic shifts of the mid-1970s and its subsequent adoption by various organizations. The report examines the role of E-CRM in enhancing customer satisfaction through the integration of technology, centralized databases, and effective customer interaction channels, including social media. It presents research questions and a hypothesis to analyze the effectiveness of relationship marketing and E-CRM. A comprehensive literature review provides insights from various sources, highlighting the advantages and challenges of implementing these strategies, including data privacy concerns and the integration of E-CRM with Supply Chain Management (SCM). The report also discusses the impact of social media and influencer marketing on customer relationships. The study employs a secondary research method, analyzing existing literature and online resources to draw conclusions and recommendations regarding the effectiveness of relationship marketing and E-CRM in enhancing organizational productivity and customer engagement.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING AND E-CRM
STUDENT DETAILS
STUDENT DETAILS

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Research questions.....................................................................................................................3
Research task..............................................................................................................................3
Hypothesis..................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................5
Method.......................................................................................................................................9
Findings......................................................................................................................................9
Discussion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Relationship marketing is the strategy that design to foster customer loyalty and long-
term engagement. These marketing strategies are developed with strong connections with
customer loyalty. The major implication of this marketing is that customer only connects with
the business when they get the premium services. Relationship marketing incorporates three
levels such as basic marketing, reactive marketing and proactive marketing. E-CRM stands
for electronic customer relationship (Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch, 2017). E-CRM provides
an effective system for the interaction of two parties, customers and business employees with
the help of Web-based technologies. Various benefits of E-CRM are improved customer
relations, centralized database, customer loyalty, etc (Wang & Kim, 2017). This process
helps an organization to create and manage the centralized database of their customers so that
they effectively and efficiently focus on their customers. In this study, research questions will
made with the hypothesis. After that, the literature review will be done. In the end, the
findings and discussion of the report will be made.

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Research questions
Purpose:
The purpose of this report is to analysis the degree of effectiveness of relationship
marketing and E-CRM. For analysing the facts, a secondary research method will be selected
and reliable journals or web-based information will be incorporated.
Research questions:
 Is relationship marketing is cost-effective than direct-personal relationship marketing?
 Since when the concept of relationship marketing is originated?
 What role does social media play in enhancing the performance of relationship
marketing?
 Why an organization focuses on relationship marketing instead of focusing on other
forms of marketing?
Research task
The research task will include a discussion about the measures through which an
organization can build up an effective relationship with their customers. Apart from this, this
research will also discuss the benefits from the perspective of an organization to maintain the
E-CRM rather than maintaining the direct-personal relationship marketing with the clients.
Business houses assign the E-CRM with the utilization of technology to deliver high-quality
customer experience across all the channels such as via social media, video conferencing, via
call, chat, etc (Melancon & Dalakas, 2018). Furthermore, this research will focus on effective
methods to increase the efficiency of the processes as well as to enhance the ability of the
process.

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A successful E-CRM framework tracks a client's history through numerous directs
progressively, makes and keeps up a systematic database, and enhances a client's connection
in the three parts of fascination, extension and support. A run of the mill E-CRM procedure
includes gathering client data, exchange history and item data, clickstream and substance
data. It gives a value-based examination comprising of the client's profile and value-based
history and an active investigation comprising of exploratory exercises demonstrating the
client's route, shopping basket, shopping example and the sky is the limit from there
(Melancon & Dalakas, 2018).
Hypothesis
Null hypothesis: There is no significant association between relationship marketing and
organizational productivity in Australia.
Alternative hypothesis: There is an association between relationship marketing and
organizational productivity in Australia.
In this study, the idea of both the null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis will be
explained through the study of various literature. A hypothesis is different from the theory
because the hypothesis is an assumption that is explained before commencing the study but a
theory is the set of principles that explains the phenomenon. The reason behind choosing the
null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis is that they explain an appropriate description of
the phenomenon. The primary purpose of this study is to figure out the answers to the
research questions that are mention above. Apart from this, in general sense, it is observed in
a service sector that there is a strong connection between the applications of relationship
marketing with organizational productivity. However, the below study will focus on the
findings of the answers to all such relevant questions and general assumptions. In the end, the
discussion part will conclude the summary of the research.

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Literature Review
According to Sheth (2017), in the mid-1970s the fundamental factor for the rise of
relationship marketing is the economic recession. The author has further explained the reason
behind saying this is that due to the economic recession people starts withdrawing their
money from banks, real estate, stock exchange, etc. After that people started searches for
their own relationship manager to keep a personal track on their investments. People also
started expecting to appoint a person who can personally handle and allocate their funds.
Thus, in this era, relationship marketing rises. Initially, relationship marketing was only
arising to handle funds and people who this job was known as relationship managers. After
that other organizations also started adopting the norms of relationship marketing because
relationship marketing is great to encourage customers and bond the long-term relationship
with them. In this era, relationship marketing is considered an effective way to gain market
shares with inorganic growth such as mergers, acquisitions and alliances (Sheth, 2017).
According to Zhang, Watson, Palmatier & Dant (2016), business houses engage in
relationship marketing to improve their ongoing with other business partners, customers and
other stakeholders. However, there are set strategies of relationship marketing and those who
desire to apply the application of relationship marketing have to maintain its major
implications. The author also mentioned in this literature is that the organization should these
strategies as per their internal and external environmental factors. These sets of strategies
need to modify as per the on-going conditions. Apart from this, it is also concluded in this
literature even after the strong and great relationships the customers can migrate through
different relationships from time to time. In this literature, the author has applied the
multivariate hidden Markov model to a six-year longitudinal data set of 553 business to
business relationship (Zhang, Watson, Palmatier & Dant, 2016).

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According to Cho & Fjermestad (2015), in today’s era organization are linking
relationship marketing with the implications of the E-CRM. As E-CRM is effective to
enhance customer satisfaction because customers get advance services that save their
precious time and relationship managers also get the time to deliver accurate and reliable
information. Apart from this, the researcher also discussed that when E-CRM linked with
relationship marketing then it enhances customer loyalty and it also helps the business house
to accomplish their goals with immediate and effective efforts. The author has mentioned that
while integrating E-CRM with relationship marketing, it becomes the responsibility of the
business houses to adopt the measures through which they can maintain the privacy of the
customer data. In the year 2014, it is estimated that over 18% of the corporate houses in the
United States were to maintain customer data privacy and this becomes a major disaster for
both, organizations and for the customers. E-CRM provides the cost-effective methods but it
becomes the responsibility of an organization to protect the data of their clients, if they fail to
do it then it can put the management into the serious legal problem because each and every
country have their own legal policies regarding the data privacy act (Cho & Fjermestad,
2015).
According to Bartolacci & Meixell (2015), relationship marketing with an online
centralized database and online supply chain management (SCM) both have come to the
forefront due to the arising internet economy. The author has also mentioned that E-CRM can
be effectively better when this integrated with the SCM because SCM improves the delivery
process of the unit with better customized and improved customer prediction. This literature
incorporates major success factors for E-CRM with SCM implementations. The first part
describes that SCM with E-CRM enables organizations to searches for better implementation
with effective customer behaviour choices because in the internet economy the choices of the
customer's changes with the time. Thus, it is important to monitor such choices in order to

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produce effective results. Apart from this, maintaining customer relationships through the
electronic portal is less costly than offering a personal relationship to the customers. In an
electronic medium, an organization is capable to offer their services via call or chat or video
conferencing. Thus, it is concluded in the study that E-CRM is a better way for maintaining a
relationship with the customer then maintaining a personal and direct relationship. The author
also mentions that there are many customers who still seeks for direct and personal
relationship and they even agree to pay high charges (Bartolacci & Meixell, 2015).
According to Gummerus, von Koskull & Kowalkowski (2017), the rise of relationship
marketing is began with the growth of the service sector. It is the kind of marketing that is
characterized by the focus on customer-firm interaction, maintaining long term relations with
customers and encouraging customers to participate in their loyalty program in exchange for
a premium and reliable services. The author also mentions that E-CRM also plays a great role
in this context because it becomes easy for an organization to keep a track of its customers in
its centralized database. Through E-CRM, an organization can effectively assign a respective
relationship manager to each of their clients. This is marked as the present and future form of
relationship marketing. Apart from this, it is offering personal and direct relationship is
marked as the past form of relationship marketing. In the past, focusing on relationship
marketing was the costly method but now due to emerging technology, this method becomes
cost-effective (Gummerus, von Koskull & Kowalkowski, 2017).
According to Greve & Schlüschen (2018), in today's era of social media, business
houses start focusing on influencer marketing. Under this marketing, the approach to the
famous personality of the region to promote their product or services. Now, the author has
mentioned that while incorporating the norms of influencer marketing it is becoming the duty
of business houses to shift their focus on influencer relationship management with
maintaining relationship marketing with customers. However, both are the major sources

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because influencer marketing is like as the source through which management can generate
demand via social media. As social media, enables the management with strategies so that
management can focus on the customer transactions that incorporates both customer relation
with customer interactions. Apart from this, influencer marketing represents a new type of
independent third party endorser that is responsible for sharping the attitude of customers
through blogs, pictures, tweets, etc (Greve & Schlüschen, 2018).
According to Palmatier & Steinhoff (2019), the concept of relationship marketing
rises in the early 1980s but instead of reaching its maturity stage, relationship marketing is
encountering its next upsurge. This is happening due to the transition to the global world,
economies based models, faster product communication, growth of emerging markets,
advertising saturation, etc. As, relationship marketing in the digital age provides a
comprehensive overview of the state of offering fruitful insights. In this study, the author has
concluded that from the past 2 decades, the marketing manager of businesses is continuously
focusing on this method of marketing. Now, this method has taken its shape with the
effective norms of the technology. Apart from this, since the 1980s till today, this method of
marketing is perfectly working because it enhances the ability of an organization to build
long term loyalty with a client. However, even clients also fascinated with this form of
business because of financially sound clients’ emphasis on the quality instead of buying the
product or services for discount codes or offers. Apart from this, the major findings of the
authors state that even in the digital age, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will
not take over the relationship marketing because under this form of marketing clients seeks
for special attention in order to make important decisions then this can only be done by the
human knowledge (Palmatier & Steinhoff, 2019).

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Method
For this study, the chosen method is the secondary method. Under this, the facts and
statistics analysis from the online sources. A completely drawn in client displays 51% higher
income and deals than effectively separated clients. Secondary data for the study are collected
through the six consecutive annual surveys conducted in 2019 on the pool network (Rahimi,
Köseoglu, Ersoy & Okumus, 2017).
Findings
All together for a business to succeed, management has to give enthusiastic support to
the client, both new and old. In this era of social media, business houses take advantage of
influencer marketing. 55% of advertisers state blog content creation is their top inbound
promoting need. WordPress clients produce over 70.5 million new blog entries and more than
52 million new remarks from month to month (Badwan, Al Shobaki, Naser & Amuna, 2017).
Advertisers who organize blogging endeavors are 13x bound to see positive ROI. 51% of
B2B advertisers organize making visual resources as a major aspect of their substance
promoting procedure. 72% of advertisers said that having a decent substance procedure was a
significant key to their achievement in 2018 (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2018).
Apart from this, the reason behind the success of E-CRM is that it is the cost reduction
method from the perspective of the business houses. Apart from this, a successful E-CRM
expands the effectiveness of the procedures just as it improves communications with clients
and empowers organizations to modify items and administrations that meet the clients'
individual needs. Electronic client relationship the executives is spurred by simple Internet
access through different stages and gadgets, for example, workstations, cell phones, work
area PCs and TV sets (Cardoso, Fleury, Feldmann & de Araújo, 2017). It isn't programming,
in any case, yet rather the usage of Web-based advances to connect, comprehend and
guarantee consumer loyalty.

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