Developing & Executing Relationships Marketing Strategy

The New Marketing Landscape:

• The Current State of Marketing: Understanding the limitations of traditional, purely transactional marketing. Antecedents to
• Relationship Marketing (RM): The evolution of marketing thought from the 4 Ps to the rise of customer experience (CX).
• Defining and Contextualizing RM: The core goal (retention, advocacy, lifetime value) and its difference from loyalty programs.
• Hybrid Marketing: Integrating RM within the broader portfolio of marketing strategies (e.g., integrating RM with Digital Marketing and Content Strategy).

Customer Relationship Value (CRV) & Profitability

• The "Why" and "How" of CRV: Understanding the financial benefits of long-term relationships for both the firm and the customer.
• Estimating Customer Lifetime Value (CLV/CRV): Simple historic models vs. predictive CLV methodologies.
• Customer Profitability Segmentation: Using segmentation (e.g., Pareto's 80/20 rule) to identify high-value/high-profit customers.
• Workshop: CLV Calculation Case Study & Segmentation Exercise.

The Psychological Drivers of a Relationship

• The Trust-Commitment Model: Analyzing how trust is built and how it leads to customer commitment.
• In-Depth Relationship Drivers: Deep dives into Trust (reliability, integrity), Commitment (affective and continuance), and Closeness. The role of Customer Satisfaction is a necessary foundation, but not a sufficient condition, for true loyalty. Impact of Risk, Salience, and Emotion on Customer Devotion.

Mapping the Relationship Ecosystem

• Customer Partnerships: Moving from simply delivering service to facilitating customer co-creation of value (e.g., product feedback, community engagement).
• Internal Partnerships: The necessity of internal marketing and cross-functional alignment (Sales, Service, Product Development) to deliver a seamless customer experience.
• External Partnerships: Leveraging Supplier and External partnerships (distributors, channel partners, affiliates) to enhance the core customer offering.

Designing Bonds and Switching Barriers

• Relationship Development Strategies: Designing deliberate structures to encourage loyalty. Types of Relationship Bonds: Examining Financial (e.g., tiered rewards), Social (e.g., personal relationships), Customization (e.g., personalized service), and Structural Bonds (e.g., integrated technology).
• Ethical Switching Barriers: Understanding and ethically deploying Procedural, Financial, and Relational barriers to competitive switching.
• Identifying Challenges: Dealing with customer "bad behaviour," managing relationship termination, and effective service recovery.

Executing the RM Marketing Plan

• Relationship Management Strategies: Differentiating between High-Involvement Management (complex, personalized B2B/key account) and Low-Involvement Management (automated, large-scale B2C).
• Integration into the Marketing Plan: Structuring RM objectives, strategies, and tactics into the organization's annual operating plan.
• Managing Personal Information and Data Ethics: Legal compliance (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and best practices for building data trust with customers.

Measurement, Critique, and Future

• Metrics and Control: Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Relationship Marketing: Retention Rate, Churn Rate, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Share of Wallet.
• Criticism of RM: When RM strategies are inappropriate, lead to over-personalization, or result in excessive cost.
• Action Planning & Wrap-up: Participants develop a 90-Day Relationship Strategy Action Plan for their organization, incorporating key takeaways.