■ Introduction
The saying ‘no man is an island’ could easily be adapted to ‘no business is an
island’! No organisation can exist in isolation. All organisations depend on
establishing and developing relationships. In short, they must develop
relationships with other organisations (e.g. suppliers, distributors, etc.)
and, even more critically, with customers. Indeed, this latter relationship
provides the fundamental basis of all marketing activity.
Alliances, joint ventures and other co-operative strategies are now
widely recognised as effective strategic solutions to the challenges of the
commercial world. Many commentators predict the future of many organ-
isations depends on their ability to successfully enter, and manage collab-
orative ventures. The coming decade will be one of strategic collaboration.
Marketers readily acknowledge the importance of building relation-
ships with customers. We have seen the emphasis move from transaction
marketing (focusing on single sales) to relationship marketing (focusing
on customer retention and building meaningful customer relationships).
When considering inter-organisational relationships, or relationships
with customer, increasingly there are moves away from conflict and
towards collaborative-based strategies and philosophies. In this chapter,
we examine the role of alliances within marketing strategy and principles
of relationship marketing.
■ Alliances
At a strategic level, managers aim to ‘add value’ by ensuring the organisa-
tion has the optimal level of assets and competencies. Increasingly, strategic
thinking recognises that it is neither wise, nor feasible, to attempt to exclu-
sively provide/own this optimal level of assets and competencies. Rather
than do everything ourselves, it may be more feasible to enter into part-
nership arrangements with other organisations. For example, two manu-
facturers could set up a joint distribution system and both benefit from
economies-of-scale. Telecommunications and computer manufacturers
could combine their technical expertise to produce a range of integrated
Increasingly businesses recognised the importance of alliances and joint ventures to future
success. In marketing, vertical marketing systems (VMS) demonstrate the benefits co-operation
can bring. Additionally, organisations need to build relationships with range of ‘markets’.
Therefore, a broader definition of marketing is required.