features that we now take for granted in today’s motor car, for
example, are supplier originated.
Closely related to the focus on suppliers for those companies
seeking product leadership is the leverage that can be gained
through developing alliances with other organizations’ specific
skills, knowledge bases and market understanding that they can
impact.
The third ‘discipline’ of customer intimacyrequires a continuing
focus on the means whereby the relationship with customers can be
made more intense and customized – even personalized. As such it
is inevitable that the ‘internal’ market becomes of critical impor-
tance. Many studies now confirm the impact of employee motiva-
tion and commitment on customer satisfaction.4, 5 Customer
intimacy as a strategy also depends for its success on the identifica-
tion of those customers or segments who are more likely to seek this
type of relationship. Certain types of products and services and
certain buying occasions are more likely to provide a successful
platform for such a strategy than others. Hence customer-intimate
companies tend to focus on building relationships with existing cus-
tomers with the greatest potential for growth and profitability.
The relationship marketing plan
To focus and integrate strategies for each of the six markets into a
cohesive whole is a challenging task. Marketing planning has long
sought to bring a systematic discipline to the structuring of the mar-
keting mix around clearly articulated strategic goals. In the new era
of relationship marketing, an extra dimension to the planning
process is required. Essentially organizations need to have a plan-
ning template supported by an organization structure and climate
that will enable them to align and coordinate what were previously
separate responsibilities. In other words, the planning process must
reflect the intended contribution to the achievement of the
overall marketing objectives of each of the six market domains (see
Figure 6.6).
The ultimate objective of the Relationship Marketing Plan is to
ensure that there is a cohesive and ‘pan-company’ approach
to the determination and implementation of marketing strategy.
Clearly there are organizational implications for this wider view of
418 Relationship Marketing