One of the most difficult and expensive tasks that any business owner faces is finding new customers or retaining old ones. Many companies dedicate different parts of their marketing department on one of these functions. To retain customers that companies already have relationship marketing is used to attract repeat business (Gilboa et al., 2019). It aims to create customer loyalty by providing them with quality products rather than promoting one-time sales. Mission for any given product is to make customers satisfied with the quality and service. Sometimes the quality of the product might be bad, but the customer can still be satisfied because of good service. Relationship marketing involves advancement of internal operations to satisfy the needs of the customers (Gilboa et al., 2019). Thus, companies can retain clients if they offer quality customer service as a part of relationship marketing.
Marketing mix elements such as perceived value, product quality, and distribution presence can build brand equity. According to Kotler and Keller (2016), “brand equity is the added value endowed to products and services with consumers” (p. 147). By creating quality products and establishing cooperation with customers through relationship marketing, companies can promote positive brand equity. It is when consumers react approvingly to the product and the way it is distributed. On the other hand, failing to use relationship marketing can lead to negative brand equity which is characterized by less favorable reaction to marketing activity. Advertising also uses relationship marketing to increase customer satisfaction with the brand. The Internet made it possible to analyze a broad amount of information about customers and their needs, which is then used to offer them personalized ads, expedited service, and special deals.
References
Gilboa, S., Seger-Guttmann, T., & Mimran, O. (2019). The unique role of relationship marketing in small businesses’ customer experience. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 51,152-164.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). A framework for marketing management. Pearson Education.