developed by other academics.^40 Earlier in this chapter we men-
tioned that relationship marketing’s antecedents could be found in
both services and industrial/international marketing literature
and practice, rising simultaneously from these two fields. Peck
contends that the original version of the model provided an ade-
quate foil for the exploration of relationship marketing in service
situations, where service quality was the principal means of dif-
ferentiation but that the industrial and international marketing
dimensions of relationship marketing were less well served. This
manifestation of the model attempts to redress the balance
between the two.
The old ‘Customer Market’ has been replaced with two separate
categories – Consumer and Intermediary. The separation of the cat-
egory allows students and managers to give greater consideration to
the needs of these quite different customer groups. It retains the
original Supplier category, but also affords the Alliance category
separate treatment. The Influencer category has also been retained
within this iteration of the framework. It continues to represent the
public at large, and all those parties – including media, analysts and
other members of the financial community, pressure groups, trade
unions, industry associations, governmental bodies, legislators and
regulators – who are not involved in the creation of customer value,
but seek to influence or control the dynamics of the organization’s
macroenvironment.
Two of the other original categories, ‘Referral’ and ‘Recruitment’,
have disappeared from the framework. This is not to say that the
activities and parties they represent are not important – they are,
and Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne make a valid case for their
consideration. Reichheld also makes frequent reference to the sig-
nificance of word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied customers
throughout his writings on loyalty management. Referrals provided
by customers and other third parties are significant promotional
opportunities, but referrals are in fact benefitsarising from success-
fully managed relationships with these parties, who are acting (for-
mally or informally) as Intermediaries or Influencers.
Likewise, recruitment is an important activity, especially when it
concerns the recruitment of employees whose skills and experience
are most pivotal to the creation and delivery of customer value. The
use of tactical marketing activities to attract the best possible people
into the organization, to create a stronger and more coherent core, is
a worthwhile proposition. Peck has argued that to afford the recruit-
Relationship marketing: The six markets framework 25