Relationship marketing 47
Technology and relationship
marketing (CRM)
The interface between marketing and CRM is
another field where there is substantial need for
research. CRM is based upon sound marketing
principles, through identifying customer needs,
segmentation, offering superior customer value
and customer retention, all of which are enabled
by the application of sophisticated technology.
However, the processes by which this is speci-
fied and managed and whether that is controlled
by technologists or marketers is as yet an issue of
some debate and little empirical knowledge
(Sisodia and Wolf, 2000). Issues relating to
consumer privacy are likely to be exacerbated
within this new environment and may ulti-
mately undermine consumer trust (O’Malleyet
al., 1997). Moreover, there needs to be greater
consideration of how consumer information
should be acquired and used. Ultimately, it must
be remembered that the objective is to build
relationships, not databases. This is achieved
through dialogue (see Gr ̈onroos, 2000) and not
one-way communication.
Relationship marketing in
cross-cultural contexts
Relationship marketing is frequently applied in
cross-cultural contexts, but the theoretical and
empirical work upon which it is grounded has
been largely conducted in Scandinavia, Britain
and North America. Unfortunately, these
regions share many cultural similarities, exhibit-
ing high power distance, low individualism and
low context communication scores (Hall, 1960,
Hofstede, 1991). So it is more than possible that
our understandings of relationship marketing
will not be relevant to cultures that are less
hierarchical, more collectivist, and where under-
standing communication is highly dependent
upon the context in which it takes place. Some
initial work has been conducted on these issues,
largely from the perspective of the Chinese
system of Guanxi (Ambler, 1995; Ambler and
Styles, 2000), but much remains to be done on a
wider geographical basis.Operationalizing relationship
marketing
It is surprising how little research has been
conducted which sheds light upon suitable
approaches to operationalizing relationship
marketing. It is impossible to support or refute
particular approaches to developing a relation-
ship marketing strategy, implementing it or
assessing its performance. The processes by
which relational partners should be identified,
the appropriate levels of investment in the
relationship established, the portfolio of simul-
taneous relationships appropriately managed,
or the termination of an unprofitable relation-
ship achieved without rancour, are all unknown.
As yet we have no metrics by which the success
or failure of relationship marketing approaches
can be evaluated. There is much research and
theorizing to be done before we can make
strategic use of relationship marketing.Staff retention and empowerment
Additionally, our understanding of issues con-
cerning staff retention and empowerment
have largely been developed in the field of
services marketing and to some extent small
business maketing. There is little research
available on the importance of employees in
the relationship, their training and retention,
which had been specifically conducted in the
context of a relational view of marketing.
Whether this will prove to be an important
issue cannot be established until more
research has been conducted.Conclusion
This chapter has reviewed the history, defini-
tion and core concepts that are part of the