Summary
In this chapter we have explored the role of the customer market
domain, which comprises the direct buyers of an organization’s
products or services and, where there is a distribution channel, the
intermediaries in that channel and the final consumers. These cus-
tomer groups form the key domain within the six markets frame-
work.
Traditional marketing activity has focused on direct buyers – how
to win them, and what kind of offer to make to them. Relationship
marketing broadens the perspective of where marketing should
focus, recognizing that success with the direct buyer is also depend-
ent on managing relationships with the intermediaries and con-
sumers in the distribution chain.
Increasingly organizations will need to make regular reviews of
their value delivery network and determine the appropriate use of
channels and channel members in order to maximize the lifetime
value of attractive segments within the final consumer group.
Organizations seeking to improve their relationship marketing will
seek to develop appropriate segmentation strategies for direct
buyers, intermediaries and final consumers. They will also seek to
develop more specific and targeted marketing segmentation by
moving towards micro-segmentation and, in some cases, to one-to-
one marketing. A regular and informed review of marketing empha-
sis and marketing spend on both customer attraction and customer
retention needs to be conducted. Market maps are a useful tool in
helping to understand and define volumes and values which are
sold through different elements of the value delivery network.
Central to the successful relationship marketing process will be an
understanding of the decision-making unit at all levels of the value
delivery network.
In the future, organizations will seek to determine which cus-
tomers or customer groups it wishes to progress up the relationship
marketing ladder and which ones it does not wish to progress. In
doing this organizations will move from a broad understanding that
customer retention is important to a focus on customer retention
economics and determining which segments and micro-segments
will yield the greatest increase in profitability from improvement in
retention activity.
Strategies aimed at retaining customers can be expensive, as this
The customer market domain: Managing relationships with buyers 51