What is Relationship Marketing?

By Shuting Qi

Relationship marketing is a strategy to establish the long-term relationship with not only customers but also business patterns. In order to build a double-bottom line which will benefit both of them. Relationship marketing requires a strong marketing network that business can connect with economy, social, and technology fields. Therefore, each one of the company has special marketing network considered as part of this company’s assets because a company establishing a marketing network is equivalent to gaining consumers’ and partners’ trusts. It will deduct certain costs of advertisement to new customers.

Moreover, as companies put more attention to customer’s behavior and like, their products could be made more adaptive to market, which would absolutely bring profits to companies.

Indeed, more and more companies realize how important of collecting customers’ data, so that their customers bond to the value that these companies created. Thus, consumer loyalty implements the increasing profits to businesses.

For example, BMW, a well-known vehicle manufacturer, allows customers to build their own vehicle from body color to interior. There are over 500 packages, over 90 interior color and 170 sized for the customer to choose. Many of their customers choose to design their perfect vehicle. Because of these type of strategies, companies and their customers both benefit from it. For companies, they do not have to do a lot more marketing research to develop a vehicle that the “market” says customers would like to buy. Instead, the customers can develop their own. For the customer, they do not have to do research and multiple time test drives but still, cannot find one perfect vehicle. Instead, they can build their own vehicle.

There are lots of examples to illustrate the benefits of doing relationship marketing for business. Therefore, it is no doubt that the relationship marketing is useful and beneficial to companies.

Kotler, Philip, Kevin Lane Keller, and Taihong Lu. Marketing Management in China. Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.