being challenged. Unless the intermediary is adding value to the
customer relationship, it may prove to be an unnecessary cost and
may be bypassed. Many organizations are now finding that in order
to build stronger relationships with final consumers they need to
change the emphasis and expenditure at different channel levels or,
alternatively, refocus the existing expenditure in ways that build
deeper and more sustained relationships. Some examples will serve
to illustrate this point.
A manufacturer of domestic dishwashing machines may have
traditionally spent a large proportion of its marketing efforts and
marketing budget on trade marketing aimed at getting the dish-
washers into large retail outlets such as department stores. Much of
the marketing expenditure may have been directed at developing
strong key account management; providing appropriate promo-
tional activity; undertaking in-store point-of-sale merchandising;
creating a discount structure based on volume; and establishing
training programmes for sales staff in the retailers. This may have
been supplemented by a considerable amount of trade advertising
and trade promotion, whilst only a limited amount of advertising
may have been aimed at final individual consumers. The manufac-
turer may decide to review its marketing approach and implement
an alternative marketing strategy that focuses more closely on the
needs of the consumer. It may seek to identify the means of final
consumers through warranty cards or some form of direct promo-
tional activity; send them a questionnaire to help identify their
needs for a range of products and services; set up a major telephone
call centre; create a customer club, etc. These and other options can
be considered as a means of building relationships with the final
consumers.
General Electric’s (GE) Appliance Division in the USA is a good
example of an organization which has built a closer relationship
with its final consumers through the establishment of a major call
centre. GE’s Answer Centre is widely regarded as one of the best in
the world. In setting up this call centre in 1981 GE sought to ‘per-
sonalise GE to the consumer and to personalise the consumer to
GE’. Unlike most manufacturers, who avoided any contact with the
final consumer, GE did an unusual thing and gave its phone number
to customers. The Answer Centre has now evolved over a 16-year
period into an increasingly important relationship marketing capa-
bility where the current network of five call centres receives several
million calls each year. Wayland and Cole^8 have outlined how GE’s
40 Relationship Marketing