From our work it is clear that a contingency approach to the six
markets is appropriate and the issue of what are relevant market
domains needs to be considered at the firm level. The Six Market
model we use in this book is not meant as a straitjacket; it may well
be developed into further variants as our on-going experience in
specific market sectors develops and empirical research is under-
taken. What is important is that an individual organization needs to
recognize that relationship marketing activities directed at cus-
tomers are necessary but not sufficient. The organization also needs
to identify the other relevant market domains, and then groups or
segments within them. Appropriate marketing strategies can then
be developed for them.
Summary
This chapter has demonstrated that relationship marketing has
emerged in parallel to the new organizational forms which continue
to evolve, to exploit a business environment characterized by con-
stant change. The new organizational structures and relationship
marketing are related and complementary, but not as cause and
effect. Both are more likely to succeed if guided by a customer ori-
entation, because a customer orientation is adaptive to environmen-
tal change. Relationship marketing, through internal marketing,
fosters the development of this customer orientation within the
company and therefore aids market-led organizational trans-
formations. Relationship marketing is therefore a market-led, cus-
tomer oriented, general management concept, based in part on a
return to marketing’s roots and the original marketing concept. Its
wider remit is to form and sustain profitable, mutually beneficial,
relationships by bringing together the necessary parties and
resources to deliver the best possible value proposition for the
customer.
References
1 Miles, R.E. and Snow, C.C. (1986). Organizations: New concepts
for new forms. California Management Review, 28 , No. 3, 62–73.28 Relationship Marketing