itable and mutually beneficial relationships between an organiza-
tion and a defined customer group.
The concept quickly broadened to encompass internal marketing
in acknowledgement that the successful management of external
relationships was largely dependent on the alignment of supporting
internal relationships.^10 The proposition by writers Christopher,
Payne and Ballantyne that relationship marketing represents the
convergence of marketing, customer service, and the total quality
movement underscores the notion of internal alignment, and
stresses the cross-functional and process-dependent nature of rela-
tionship marketing.^11 Explicit in this proposition is the recognition
that customer satisfaction and loyalty are built through the creation
of superior value for the customer, and that value is created
throughout the organization and beyond. The writers factored rela-
tionships with a range of other parties, including distributors, sup-
pliers and public institutions, into the relationship marketing
equation, bringing their broadened interpretation of relationship
marketing into line with a view of marketing put forward earlier by
some of the leading writers of the IMP Group and ‘Nordic School’.^12
While some well-known writers in the field still seek to limit the
scope of the concept to the customer–supplier dyad,^13 there is evi-
dence that this broadened perspective is gradually gaining wider
acceptance among scholars of relationship marketing.14–
Several writers have pointed out that the all-pervasive philoso-
phy of relationship marketing within the firm (and beyond) repre-
sents, in part, a revival of the marketing concept^18 , which, though
eclipsed by the rise and misapplication of strategic planning during
the 1970s, is once more finding favour as a guiding management
philosophy. The renaissance of the marketing concept is due to a
growing acceptance of its potential as a strategy for dealing with
market turbulence because ‘at its roots, the marketing concept calls
for constant change as market conditions evolve’, but for most
organizations change does not come easily.^19
Competitive pressures have, however, encouraged organizations
to re-examine their supply chains, reducing costs and improving
quality at every stage. The search for competitive advantage
through improved efficiency has led them to reconfigure their oper-
ations and consequently their organizations. New forms of organi-
zation are emerging, characterized by intraorganizational and
interorganizational cooperation, as businesses reconfigure around
core processes, outsourcing those activities which do not directly
Relationship marketing: The six markets framework 3