at groups in the influence market domain, such as environmental-
ists or City analysts. Here the emphasis may be on avoiding nega-
tive actions on the part of the environmentalists or seeking to
increase loyalty amongst investors in the company. Thus the influ-
ence market typically has greatest impact on groups who are not
customers.
It should be restated here that within the Six Markets model one
given group may be involved in a number of these markets. For
example, in the case of customers they may play a role within the
customer market where the interaction is between a firm and its cus-
tomers and in the referral market where the interaction is between
an existing customer and a prospective customer. Thus customers
(and other groups) may have a number of differing roles within the
six market domains.
The remainder of this chapter is divided as follows: in the first
part, a brief introduction outlines the content of this section. In the
second and third parts, the nature of the referral market domain and
the influence market domain are discussed. As there has been little
previous research in these two domains in the context of relation-
ship marketing, the groups within them are examined in some
detail. Following a brief summary of the chapter, an overview is
then provided of the three case studies which are contained within
this chapter of the book.
The referral market domain
As previously noted, there are two broad categories of referral
market: existing customers and other non-customer referral sources.
The first category, existing (and former) customers can have a poten-
tially very strong impact on most organizations. The importance of
the second category will depend upon the organization concerned.
The role of the different constituent groups will vary not only
between companies in different industry sectors but also within dif-
ferent business units, divisions or product/service areas of a single
company. Using the principles of relationship marketing to system-
atically manage relationships with both these two broad groups can
represent a major source of increased revenue and profits for an
organization. The referral market domain is illustrated in Figure 4.1.
222 Relationship Marketing