Relationship Marketing

 Relationship Marketing

This book completes a trilogy that began in 1991 with Relationship

Marketing, which was one of the first attempts to define the newly

emerging concept from which the book took its name. Following

this in 1995 the current team of authors produced a companion

volume of selected readings, Relationship Marketing for Competitive

Advantage. These readings were chosen to provide a broad, multi-

faceted view of the by now rapidly developing arena of

Relationship Marketing.

Such has been the interest amongst teachers and students of

Relationship Marketing that we felt it appropriate to augment these

first two volumes with a third, this time constructed around a

number of case studies and case histories.

The framework used within this book is a modified version of the

‘Six Markets’ model, first advanced in the original Relationship

Marketing. This simple but practical framework suggests that there

are a number of market domains as well as the final marketplace

that must be addressed if long-term profitability is to be assured.

Since the development of the original Six Markets model, the

authors, their colleagues and students have used this framework as

the basis for assessing the extent to which true, pan-company rela-

tionship marketing strategies are applied in the world of business.

It has proven to be a powerful diagnostic tool, capable of aiding the

development of successful relationship marketing strategies by

highlighting potential weaknesses in one or more of the market

domains and the stumbling blocks that may arise as a result of such

neglect.

The Six Markets model, though continually evolving, has been used

by the authors and their students in over 50 real world applications.

During this time the framework has demonstrated its merits through

the insights it provides, establishing its worth as a practical analytical

tool to explain and predict success or failure in the marketplace.

The book itself takes the reader first through an exploration of the

Six Markets model and its development from inception to date. The

contributions of other leading academics working towards similar

frameworks are also acknowledged and discussed in Chapter 1.

This introductory chapter is then followed by a further four chap-

ters, each taking as its focus one, or in some instances two, of the six

market domains. In each of these chapters, the roles and significance

of the market domain(s) are explained and explored in greater

detail. Key themes for the management of relationships relevant to

each market domain are presented, along with in-depth discussions

of established theory, recent developments and new thinking in the

given field. Supporting the texts are a number of case studies or his-

tories selected to illustrate the importance and practicalities of man-

aging some of the relationships in question. The sixth and final

chapter then draws together these market domains and the themes

from the earlier chapters. Two further case studies are presented

here, this time exercising the Six Markets model in its entirety,

thereby presenting the reader with an holistic overview of the appli-

cation of Relationship Marketing.