Relationship Marketing Strategy and implementation

a well-established company in a mature market will primarily need
to focus on retaining existing customers and intermediaries.
However, the markets in most developed economies are mature.
Despite this, many companies still spend too much of their
resources in terms of money and time on customer acquisition and
too little on customer retention.
Relationship marketing acknowledges that different marketing
strategies are needed for customer acquisition and retention. The
relationship marketing ladder of loyalty, illustrated in Figure 2.6,
identifies the different stages of relationship development. This
ladder has relevance for all groups – buyers, intermediaries and
consumers – within the customer market domain.
The first task is to move a ‘prospect’ up to the first rung to a ‘pur-
chaser’.* The next objective is to turn the new purchaser into a
‘client’ who purchases regularly; and then develop a ‘supporter’ of
the company and its products. The next advancement up the loyalty

The customer market domain: Managing relationships with buyers 45

'Partner'

'Advocate'

'Supporter'

'Client'

'Purchaser'

'Prospect'

'Partner': someone who has the relationship

of a partner with you

'Advocate': someone who actively recommends

you to others, who does your marketing for

you

'Supporter': someone who likes your organization,

but only supports you passively

'Client': someone who has done business with

you on a repeat basis but may be negative,

or at best neutral, towards your organization

'Purchaser': someone who has done business

just once with your organization

'Prospect': someone whom you believe may be

persuaded to do business with you

Figure 2.6 The relationship marketing ladder of loyalty.

*In earlier versions of the ladder this step was called ‘customer’.^10