Developing Customer Relationships Through Marketing Communications
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE ORGANISATION
The first and more conventional approach is the transactional marketing, based on the single sales. In this case Innocent doesn’t have any contact with the customers more than the simple purchase. It occurs when the customer doesn’t want to undertake any long-term relationship, either because he doesn’t feel tied with the brand values or for his sporadic purchase behaviour. In this situation, the customer is more focused on the product features and on the momentary convenience.
Relationship marketing is marketing seen as relationships, networks and interaction. It is aimed at establishing long-term win-win relationships with customers. In approaching a potential customer, relationship marketing has the ambition to climb the loyalty ladder: from prospect over first-time customer, to client, supporter, advocate and partner.
(adapted from both Duncan, 2002 and Kotler, 2003).
Relationship marketing is the opposite of transaction marketing in which this ambition does not exist. Traditional transaction or acquisition marketing is short-term and sales-oriented and aims at the ‘one shot deal’. Relationship marketing is built upon the relationship between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability.
(Gummesson, 2000).
Innocent drinks develops its customer relationship strategies according to the target audience, in order to retain new and existing customers both in the b2b and b2c UK market, shaping and stretching its relationships across 4 key groups: customers; suppliers; internal audience and stakeholder.
We will focus on its b2c relationships.
B2C
Innocent will strive for guarantee high reliability to avoid risk of switching to substitutes (i.e. assuring products storage), improving responsiveness (i.e. high customer service standards), assurance (i.e. employees acknowledgement of products attributes), empathy (i.e. supporting feedback and complaints as improvement), tangible factors
The first and more conventional approach is the transactional marketing, based on the single sales. In this case Innocent doesn’t have any contact with the customers more than the simple purchase. It occurs when the customer doesn’t want to undertake any long-term relationship, either because he doesn’t feel tied with the brand values or for his sporadic purchase behaviour. In this situation, the customer is more focused on the product features and on the momentary convenience.
Relationship marketing is marketing seen as relationships, networks and interaction. It is aimed at establishing long-term win-win relationships with customers. In approaching a potential customer, relationship marketing has the ambition to climb the loyalty ladder: from prospect over first-time customer, to client, supporter, advocate and partner.
(adapted from both Duncan, 2002 and Kotler, 2003).
Relationship marketing is the opposite of transaction marketing in which this ambition does not exist. Traditional transaction or acquisition marketing is short-term and sales-oriented and aims at the ‘one shot deal’. Relationship marketing is built upon the relationship between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability.
(Gummesson, 2000).
Innocent drinks develops its customer relationship strategies according to the target audience, in order to retain new and existing customers both in the b2b and b2c UK market, shaping and stretching its relationships across 4 key groups: customers; suppliers; internal audience and stakeholder.
We will focus on its b2c relationships.
B2C
Innocent will strive for guarantee high reliability to avoid risk of switching to substitutes (i.e. assuring products storage), improving responsiveness (i.e. high customer service standards), assurance (i.e. employees acknowledgement of products attributes), empathy (i.e. supporting feedback and complaints as improvement), tangible factors