前工業時代專注的是生產觀念。即使是工業組織化和生產成為反映增長的最重要的方面，但市場仍處于初期階段。但是即便如此，市場營銷在組織結構中仍起到了成功的作用。例如，假如一個人有做襯衫的能力，那么他就會把襯衫賣與自己有點關系的給顧客。因此關系是任何組織最后一個行為中不可分割的部分，例如銷售。因此營銷的主要工作就是開發和保持一個長期與現有客戶的聯系，提高再購買和客戶生命周期的價值，因此，吸引顧客的基本過程是建立一個信托債券，通過他們為顧客提供滿意的服務，增加回購的機會，這被稱為“關系營銷”。

 

The pre-industrial era was focused on production concept. Even after organized industrialization, production was the most important aspect reflecting the growth, where as marketing was still in a nascent stage. But even then, marketing did play a part in organizational success. For example, if a person had the skill to stich a shirt, he would sell it to customers with whom he had some relation with. Thus relationship was an integral part of the final act of any organizations, i.e. selling. Therefore the major job of marketing is to develop a long term relationship with existing customers so as to increase repurchase and customer lifetime value thus, the basic process of attracting customer and building a trust bond with them by providing them satisfactory services and increases repurchase chances is termed as 'Relationship Marketing.'

 

With increase industrialization and concept of mass production, mass communication came into being which saw the dwindling the effect of cemented relationships with customer. One of the major reasons for this was the increase in reach but the inability to maintain customer databases. But now, with advancements in IT services, an organization can easily keep track of loyal customers and maintain long term relations with rewarding results. For examples, Hotel industry now keeps a database of customer's preferences and requirement, called 'customer profiling'. This helps in providing customer preferred arrangement on return of customer and thus leading towards customer satisfaction. This in turn builds a strong, active relationship with the organization.

 

Not only B2C, but also in B2B spectrum, the use of IT and the need for gaining customer satisfaction have lead various organizations to redesign their organizations functional procedures. All industry are striving for a 'customer centric' approach. This has even let organizations to move from a 'bid-buy' system of assigning suppliers or vendors to a more quality and trust oriented system. The whole B2B spectrum runs on the basic principle of 'Mutual Understanding.'

 

Building a strong bond is much more difficult for retail industry. With a number of players, and ever changing promotional offers, customer now o not stick to one brand or product but utilize the information provided to get the best deal. Thus retaining 'intelligent promotions aware' customers requires much deeper commitment from the organization.

 

In this report, we look at various factors influencing customer decision of purchase in retail sector and how the organization can use these factors for maximizing revenue and increasing sales volumes. We also look at how DELL manages its relationship marketing in the 6 basic marketing sectors of customer marketing, suppliers marketing, internal marketing, recruitment marketing, and influence/referral marketing.

 

關系營銷理念——Concept of Relationship Marketing

 

Relationship Marketing can be explained as a mutual bonding which gives benefit to both parties involved. These parties could be suppliers, vendors, customers even the employees in the organization. The most important relationship of the above is the customer relationship. With the difference in industry, product manufactured and utility, the relationship marketing strategy differs from industry to industry. Today as the information flow has increased and consumer becomes more aware, just the mutual understanding is not enough. A trust of good and quality product and service is most valuable. There are various facts about relationship marketing which need to be scrutinized.

 

With increase in players in the market, the customer has the choice of moving from one player to other without much thought. In such situations, especially with FMCG sector, customer loyalty is almost negligible. For a company giving more information to the customer may be advantageous and dangerous at the same time. With customer awareness increasing, providing more information may lead the customer to believe the product to be of good quality or not and be a deciding factor of switching to competitors. But providing more information forms a bond of transparency with the customer, thus increasing emotional factors such as commitment and trust. With difference in satisfaction levels of the customer, every customer now needs to be treated differently. Thus companies are now following a pull model of marketing rather than push model. This provides the customer with exactly what is required and reduces inventory requirement of companies. But only providing quality product is not enough. Today business thrives on after sale services. A customer wants to be appreciated after purchase of products. Thus customer after sales service could be regarded as a very necessary step in building a cemented relationship.

 

With the above examples, the need of customer relationship marketing can be clearly seen. Thus in further discussion, we try and analyse the major factors for Relationship Marketing.

 

CHAPTER II

 

介紹 ——Introduction

 

As the view of the organization evolved, it was very evidently seen that apart from just the employees at the organization, customers should be the main focus. It is that the organizations realised that if growth was a necessity, it was customer relationship which would lead to it. Thus, the concept of Relationship Marketing as rightly stated by Mattsson (1997) as the major trend in marketing practices. This topic has been a favourite in various conferences and discussions, inter and intra organizations, to try and vow the customer and maintain customer loyalty. But even with the understanding of the utmost importance of RM concept, it is very disheartening to see how rarely this concept was applied by practitioners.

 

A more astounding fact reviled how this concept was accepted without much examination for the basis for genuinely and quality.

 

Even with a number of limitations, it is very widely accepted that a relationship can be formed by any customer, at any point of time, in any situation. This can be applied to any field and any industry (Barnes & Howlett 1996).

 

Wit industries such as retailing, were direct customer reach is possible; development of relationship strategies attracted a very wide interest. The most common facility provided by all major retailing chains, the store loyalty cards, has been identified as evidence of relation marketing in retailing. Thus the involvement of retailers in exploiting practices of RM seems like the next progressive step. As the customer has now become the key focus of the business industry, thus the more the extent to which the retailer can get closer to the customer, the better he can be served. This is becoming more important as the businesses are now growing further back into the distribution lines. It is when the customer comes directly in contact with the retailer, at the point of supply; the major responsibility is on the shoulders of the retailer, who interacts with the customer. Thus for the service and retail industry, this is 'the moment of truth'.

 

There have been various authors who try and emphasis on the benefits of customer loyalty, especially to the retail and distribution industry. It can be very clearly seen, that industries with direct interaction with customer; especially those which are B2C, and dealing with individual customers at a larger volume; trying to increase customer loyalty through various means pays off. Other practices such as minimizing mark-downs, streamlined inventory and improved capacity forecasting provide high beneficial outcomes. Then there are counter arguments which focus on that application of RM strategies is not universal, thus with products such as FMCG (high street services); the conditions for a successful RM may not be met.

 

Thus with both the argument placed, we would try to verify what are the conditions required to deliver the customer oriented services in retail market ad how RM strategies could be implemented.

 

經濟學的關系 ——Relationship Economics

 

Every organization runs with the sole aim (at least ultimately) of profitability, but with the increase of competitors and products in the market, sustainability has come out to be the more important issue. Thus today, every organization strives of sustainable profitability.

 

Thus, much of the interest in RM has been derived from 'relationship economics'. This principle runs on two profit driven arguments. Firstly, it is less expensive to retain existing customers than to find new customers and thus, in the long term, it's these existing customers which provide superiors profits. And it is well argued that retention can be increases by simply having effective relationship programs and increasing customer satisfaction.

 

Acquisition/Retention costs

 

For successful relationship marketing practices, the maximum cost comes from personal selling and direct and indirect cost of information gathering. With advent of RM the more long term the relationship, the less is the cost on the income. Thus profit increases. One of the advantages with FMCG retailing is that the cost of acquiring new customer is marginal as intense personal selling or information database may not be required. This happens because FMCG customer needs only a few factors such as locations, quality, price range, variety etc., to simulate sales. Thus it can be argued that these factors play the important role in retaining customers also. Other cost such as advertising or marketing communications can be added up in the customer acquisition cost. Thus the cost of acquisition remain similar if parameters for promoting the sale of goods for potential customers are similar or the same as those for existing clients. Thus, if the retailer introduces schemes which would be considered as appreciation of the customer loyalty, and thus repeat buyers are rewarded, it is possible that the cost of retention may exceed the cost of acquisition in FMCG sector. Thus it's a trade off between costly retention techniques to that of the cost of acquisition. This can be evident in the loyalty schemes where the validity of the product is highly questionable. To maintain these schemes, cost is involved, which as some stage results into costlier goods and higher prices. Thus the only differentiator is the lower prices and loyalty intensivisors. This has been very common with various retail stores which are swinging between 'price wars' and 'differential advantage' strategies.

 

Long Term Benefits

 

As discussed before, long term loyal customers, provide with better profit margins in the long run. This can be seen hypothetically for industries which have a low customer turnover and high exit barriers as income is more likely to increase tan decrease in long run. But in business, where there is high customer turnover and low exit barriers, profitability is a factor of number of customers whose purchase decline or cease over some period of time rather.

Over a long period, with the customer being more informed and cynical, it is possible the customer could manipulate the supplier to his/her desire, resulting to increase or decrease in prices and thus revenue is effected. This can be negated if the market is growing steadily or competitors are inactive. Unfortunately, that is not the case in today's market.

 

With increase in promotional schemes to retain customers, it is seen that customers are becoming knowledgeable i.e. a sudden spurge of 'generation of promotion literate customers' has been created, thus shift from one promotional campaign to other to gain maximum advantage. With low exit barriers in this industry, even the loyal customers may be prompted to shift retailer.

 

風險、突出性和情感——Risk, Salience and Emotion

 

It seems various organizations are benefiting from relational strategies. But on closer examination, these organizations could be classified as once involving high risk purchases i.e. single monetary outlay or payment over extended periods. Extended payment periods are associated with high opportunity cost. Over tie, it has been found that attempts are made by the suppliers to 'lock-down' the customers both by psychological means and on financial terms. Especially in high risk situations, the consumer may be wiling to enter a service or buy a product purely on the bases on intense emotions. These high expectations of the customer are thus accomplished with RM tactics such as frequent communication and closer ties. Looking at the other side, those products which may be defined as low on risk and cost follow a different pattern. Especially FMCG, repetitive services do not result into larger or more volume sales as the product are low risk. Thus emotional attachment is not of a major consideration for repetitive products.

 

However, there is another category of product where intense emotion seems to be a major deciding factor. These products may be related to self esteem or of status quotient. These products are highly personalized and involve a trade off. For example, air dressers or beauticians etc. if these services or products have a strong emotional drivers, it could be possible to secure customers patronage with the help of god relationship tactics. Increase in personalized services, such as personal trainer or personal shopper or expert advices increase the customer experience hence increase value of products to customer. Thus the strong, intense emotional bonding of the customer with products/services plays a major role in implementing great relationship marketing strategies.

 

信任&承諾 ——Trust & Commitment

 

With the number of competitors increasing, two factors, trust and commitment play a major role in maintaining customer loyalty. Both these terms are highly discussed and lectured upon, but a clear definition is hard to give. Nevertheless, both these factors go hand in hand. In a crude form, trust can be defined as 'an acceptance of vulnerability to another's possible, but not expected, ill will or lack of good will'. This expectation is so predominant in a few retail sectors such as banking, that trust supersedes the actual service transactions. Thus as it so happened in UK that banks were selling products giving very high profit margin on sole basis of trust with the customer. This was, investigated by the UK authorities, who regarded this as 'mis-selling' and controlled it to some extent.

 

Thus, commitment and trust form a strong foundation for both parties in interaction, and encourage growth. Thus is retail industry, it's a benefit to the retailer if his supplier on the back end and the customers on the front end encouraged this relationship. Thus comes the strong effect of relationship marketing in picture. Thus at the e d, if trust and commitment are pre- requisites for increase in revenue, then relationship marketing can be denoted as the way of achieving this.

 

From customer's view, it's the brand which provides its safety, reliability, quality and is 'value for money' is trust worthy. It is when these factors are not met, the trust bond between the customer and retailer is broken, leading to dissatisfaction and slowly shifting to competitors. In particular with FMCG sector, building of this trust factor is very difficult and requires extreme efforts as there is no dearth of players in the market, and exit barriers are low. The major risk being that customer would opt for product providing them the best deal rather than looking for who is the supplier. As there is no need to commit to a brand or supplier, customers usually form a portfolio of brands. Thus as FMCG fails in developing trust and commitment, RM practices are not successful.

 

客戶滿意度 ——Customer Satisfaction

 

With new products and competitor increasing very day, providing the customer with exactly what he requires becomes a prerequisite for a healthy relationship. This in turn helps in increasing retention, and thus customer loyalty. It's a fact that a satisfied customer is more likely to be loyal than a non satisfied one. To be certain of customer loyalty, only satisfaction cannot work. While a customer searches for the right product, the emotional connect to the product also matters. Thus when a customer purchases creates high emotion it is very likely to create initial push to look around and 'try' the product. It is only after he is fully satisfied with the product, he would repurchase. Now it has become necessary to differentiate between true vendor loyalty and repeat purchase behaviour. Satisfaction is not the ideal measure of defining customer loyalty. It is very possible that even with a dissatisfaction quotient, the customer may repurchase due to other related factors such as price. This can be called 'default loyalty'. For example, even if the preferred product is available in the market, but not located conveniently for the customer, the customer shows the signs of loyalty to the nearest store available just because of his repurchase pattern and not 'satisfaction'. These customers are termed as 'hostage' to inconvenience. To check on the level of satisfaction, continuous assessments and interaction with customers becomes necessary. Not only finding causes for dissatisfaction, but working towards a more enhanced shopping experience is what the customer expects.

 

總結 ——Summary

 

When looking for definite answers, a retailer would not be able to clearly state if the sales are due to the relationship marketing or because of the commercial transaction. It is very vague and difficult to evaluate with certainty. A certain amount of clarity can still be seen in B2B transactions, but almost impossible to be definite in individual B2C transactions. Especially with FMCG, the concept and application of RM and its benefits are perceived by the retailer itself. It is mostly found that a relationship is build from the side of the retailer/supplier while the customer is ignorant to the fact that he is a part of it. With various loyalty programs, and store loyalty cards, there is a drift between ideologies. While some believe these programmes benefit the customer and also the retailer, some believe it's a way of manipulating the customer to make him purchase more and stay loyal. That is, rather than an appreciation, it's an incentive to continue a 'relationship' with the particular retailer.

 

In the table below are given the factors which effect in increasing or decreasing the effect of RM practices.

 

CHAPTER III - CASE STUDY - DELL COMPUTERS

 

介紹 ——Introduction

 

DELL Computer Corporation is one of the world most valuable organizations. An American multinational dealing with developing, selling and provide support to various computer and related products and services. Founded by Micheal Dell in1984, the company has come a long way from providing and selling personal computers to giving IT solutions today.

 

The basic business model of DELL Computer Corporations is built on surpassing the intermediaries and dealing with the customer directly. Thus to develop a great bond with the customers, DELL had to move from traditional models of CRM to relationship marketing. In this case study we look at how DELL conducts relationship marketing in certain market situations.

 

Customer market

 

Supplier Market

 

Referral Market/Influence Market

 

客戶市場 ——Customer markets

 

The six market model clearly shows how customer market remains the most important aspect of relationship marketing. Looking at how DELL manages customer markets, Micheal Dell emphasises on 'Finding ways to get close to your customers is critical to your success.' This strategy has been names 'virtual integration with customers'. DELL has developed a strategy which takes the sole responsibility of relationship building away from the marketing department and makes everyone responsible for the for relationship marketing.

 

DELL has categorizes its customers into three categorise namely, large corporate customers, home and small business, and the public sectors. Serving different customer requires a different relationship strategy which DELL has developed and hence customized the approach. For this networking and relationship bonding, DELL mainly uses two method; internet and call centres. With a very huge sales team for support the sales division dealing with telephonic calls are assigned with one individual relationship customers, whereas a sales representative is dedicatedly assigned to one customer. Eg. DELL has employed 30 sales representatives to handle 140 Boeing computers (Boeing is a customer of DELL).

 

DELL deals with large corporate/ customers by providing them access to there procurement portal 'premier DELL.com'. The settings on the website are customized as per the need of the customer and thus helps DELL in providing faster solution to them after. With this website, customers can browse through catalogues, give online orders and make payments. They can even post their queries which would be handled by experts/technical support 24 hrs a day. Moreover DELL now provides with IT solutions which can be handles from DELL's server, thus taking an active measure for the IT management for the client. This results into a mutual understanding between the client and DELL as data is free flowing and can be utilized to its fullest potential. Thus DELL becomes an integral part of their resource management which results into stronger relationships thus minimizing the threats of substitutes (porters five forces model).

As DELL makes constant efforts in maintaining relationship with customers, they acquire a vast database through customer real time response. This response helps them to further evolve and revise their services and thus provide the customer with exactly what he wants.

 

This was previously known as 'knowledge based and experience based marketing' (McKenna 1990s). As DELL deals with customer directly, this direct model gives DELL an upper hand than its competitors and is a key reason for its success.

 

With increase in customer demand, DELL has developed an excellent strategy for dealing with tailor made products but also tries and adapts to the value chain of the customer and suggests improvement rather than imposing products as would happen in a push market.

 

As already discussed, that loyal customers are not always profitable, DELL has clearly defined those customers whom they call 'scalable business' i.e. those customers with whom the revenues would increase.

 

The concept of 'Platinum Council' in DELL is a loyalty programme which organizes semi annual meetings with their most profitable customers to discuss latest development and improvement strategies.

 

With all these strategies, DELL attributes itself to one of the most successful relationship marketing programme.

 

供應商市場 ——Supplier Market

 

B2B relations are very important to any retailer. Dealing with suppliers the equaltion between them could lead to better or worst quality. Thus developing a strong and mutual relationship with the suppliers is of utmost importance.

 

Del has continuously changed and redesigned it suppler network. Earlier, dealing with 140 different suppliers turned out to be costly, complex and a major reason for delay in market capturing. Thus, to reduce this ambiguity, DELL developed their products in a fashion where every model uses similar components and still giving different outputs. This excellence in reengineering has resulted in maintaining relationships with only 30 suppliers and still getting the best quality possible. But with such minimum supplier network DELL makes sure that it has one or two other supplier who would act as risk minimize in case of single outsourcing. DELL follows a dynamic relationship which is based on short term necessity base. DELL differentiates in term of relationship with the type of component. For example, DELL has a long term relationship commitment with SONY which provides its laptops with monitors. But to manage these volumes of components from different suppliers, DELL has adopted a just in time, pull system. This system is followed due the simple fact that at DELL there is no mass production. With the suppliers in nearby premises, the pull system, that is the uncertainty in need to component at any time, in any quantity can be fulfilled. To make this work, the DELL supply network is a very articulately planned system, which can be called as virtual integration. This is done by a simple method of sharing information such as inventory, technology plans, quality plans, redesigning etc, with the suppliers on daily, real time bases. This is run on a system called 'valuechain.dell.com'. with increased accessibility to information, DELL makes sure that all the customer feedback are send to the supplier so that appropriate changes could made.

 

Micheal Dell explains in very simple words that from the traditional driven bid-buy system, the organizations have now reached a stage of 'mutual benefit partnership'. Various worry points, such as delay due to inventory shortage, or excess waste inventory, on the part of DELL as well as suppliers is considerably reduced, thus resulting into cost advantage and hardly eve missing out selling opportunities.

 

Thus with increase in information sharing and mutual partnerships, it is the customer need which is getting address and thus better and more customer suited products are produced.

 

國內市場—— Internal Market

 

With organizations turning global, handling only external market is not sufficient. Internal market for an organization relates to the employee as large. It is a well tested fact that relationship to external market suffers if internal markets are neglected. Thus, as the importance of the internal market is profound, the need and requirement of he internal market should be satisfied to give best results to the external market.

 

Keeping this in mind, DELL makes extra effort in formulating a well established organizational structure. This has been possible with the vast experience Micheal Dell has acquired over the pas decades. Micheal Dell very interestingly puts his biggest threats to be the non co-operation of the employees and their dwindling team spirit and not the competitors.

 

To get the optimum output from each employees, employees are treated as co-partners, sharing success and losses wit the organizational health. This gives them a greater feel of being a part of the organization and hence authority. DELL makes sure that every employee is given resources and tools to take informed decisions and drive the organization as wanted.

 

'The SOUL of DELL' an employee based initiative was taken up by DELL to try and compile an employee guidebook comprising of DELL ideals. Thus with such information, DELL empowers its employees to use information and make improvement in system for a more productive organization. But one draw back of this system is that employees cannot make decisions only on the bases of technical information provided. Thus'goal congruence' is framed and check on regular bases. Another approach developed is the 'management pay up day' that is the employee decide on the various gestures of appreciation which the management should follow. These approaches help in the concept of 'a home affair' that is the employees of DELL are one big family.

 

But all these approaches may not be enough if the there is no check or control programme. Thus a 'two in a box' concept is worked out that is every position is shared between two employees, that is one is better than two. Even the position of CEO is shared. All these measures are incorporated for a single goal of employee satisfaction which would intern have a positive effect on the relationship with customers.

 

Thus, with all these empowerment technics, DELL tries to achieve sync between all employees and thus commitment is achieved resulting into greater relationship marketing with the customers.

 

招聘市場 ——Recruitment Market

 

As has been highlighted in internal market segment, employees make the most important asset for any organization and it is no different with DELL. For a well skilled force, Del makes special efforts for maintaining strategic and effective partnerships with colleges and universities in order to try and recruit well experienced workforce.

 

DELL works for recruitment marketing relation using its 'direct model'. For non university candidates, DELL has made provision of applying online. But maintaining active relationship with universities provides them opportunity to interview candidates on campus of high calibre i.e. MBAs, etc.

 

With facility to apply online, DELL also provides interested candidates with information with selection criterions. DELL also provides them with 'tips and hints' for interviews and CV writing. With CVs submitted and stored on their database, DELL runs a keyword check for appropriate candidates, involve them in telephonic interview, and personal interview. DELLs 'University Relation (UR)' recruiting initiative builds an active relationship with universities and college exposing DELL with talent and candidates with potential to grow. DELL also maintains relationship by providing scholarships and targeted college programmes.

 

With these initiatives, DELL makes sure to select the best suited candidates for its organization.

 

影響/推薦市場—— Influence/Referral market

 

With a number of factors on which the growth of the organization depends on, the major influencer have to be carefully considered. For DELL the major influencers directly affecting the working were the government regulations and the ever changing computer technology. DELL has entered into a defence contract with the US government providing them computer solution. This has benefited DELL in manoeuvring the government for a bigger investment of the computer industry.

 

Organizations need to consider customers and recruitment centres and intermediaries as major source of growth. This is because satisfied customers would recommend the product and brand to other, thus becoming 'advocates' for the brand. Thus attempt to retain existing customer results in positive 'word of mouth' publicity and increase in customer database. DELL collaborates with various universities and charitable organization providing them with scholarship programmes and donations. DELL expects to increase the exposing its products to maximum people as possible especially younger generations who would end up using DELL products and recommend the further. DELL runs recycling campaigns with charitable organizations and provides customers with better upgrades and these charitable institutes with a number of products free of cost. With these initiatives, DELL tries to portray an image of an ethically sound organization and reach people further.

 

總結 ——Summary

 

This case study attempted to provide an inside into how DELL Computer Corporation maintains and nurtures relationships across all market segments and thus exploit the concept of 'Relationship Marketing' to the fullest.

 

Relationship Marketing does not only help DELL's customers but also gives opportunity to DELL to expand further. Thus, relationship marketing posses a 'win-win' situation for both, the customers and the organization.

 

結論—— CONCLUSION

 

With all the discussion in the report, it is very evident that in today's market scenario, an organization cannot sustain without a relationship without their customers. The volatile nature of consumer shopping pattern i.e. switching from one brand to other, it is very difficult for any organization to track and keep record of consumer pattern. a customer would respond and act upon only those advertisements or communications of which we relates himself too. Therefore, a few observations are made. Firstly, everyday 3000 communication messages are bombarded to customers. It is very important for the customer to listen. Thus those customers who are listening are the ones with who the relationship is build. Another thing to consider is the amount of effort to be applied to promote the products. The amount of effort should be in proportion to the customer base. Thus defining a strong relationship is more important than just taking care of customer. One of the most interesting thing about this concept is how satisfied customers become advocates of the product. This inturn helps in increasing customer database and sales volume. It has been tested that if a customer can sell the product to even one person, the business would increase seven times in the coming five years. Advances in IT and the penetration of IT solutions in organizational functioning cannot be ignored. This has helped every sector, especially retail industry, to make the experience more convenient. With various software companies coming up with CRM and customer data base systems, it has become easier for company to profile the customer and find the most valuable customers. Valuable customers are promising customers who would increase the sales due to repurchase in the coming future. To deal with such high worth customers, organizations have developed separate relationship plans. It could be related to the concept of 'personal selling' to ensure a long term commitment and trust relationship.

 

Thus, with increase in customer centric plans and strategy, Relationship Marketing is evolving an essential part of any organizational structure. In future, we would see better attempts at preserving the bond between customer and organization at large.