Relationship marketing: a high‐involvement product attribute approach
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610429810209700 |
| Pages | 6-26 |
| Published date | 01 February 1998 |
| Date | 01 February 1998 |
| Author | Charles L. Martin |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Introduction
Because products/brands mean different things to different people,
consumers form varying levels of loyalties or attachments to the
products/brands[1] they acquire. Consumers’ attachments may be quite
different in nature and intensity from those of their neighbors.
Understanding these attachments – how they differ, how they form, and how
they can be influenced – clearly is in the interest of product and brand
managers.
This study investigates these consumer-product relationships from the
product (rather than consumer) side of the dyad – although as with any sort
of research of relational phenomena, neither half of the dyad can be fully
understood out of its context with the other. Specifically, three key questions
guided the research:
(1) To what extent are some products more relationship-prone[2] than
others?
(2) What attributes differentiate relationship-prone products from those that
do not seem to be relationship-prone?
(3) If salient points of differentiation exist, what can product/brand
managers and new product development teams do to create, build and
maintain desirable consumer-product relationships?
Background
At least three streams of marketing inquiry converge to provide meaningful
insights into the investigation of consumer-product relationships:
relationship marketing, product meaning, and involvement.
Relationship marketing
Relationship marketing has been advanced as the new paradigm of
marketing in the 1990s (Grönroos, 1994; Gummesson, 1994; Kotler,
1991)[3] suggesting that the focus of marketing efforts are (and should be)
shifting from marketing mix manipulation for the purpose of immediate
exchange transactions to those that focus on longer-term exchange
relationships. Driven by intense competition, escalating marketing costs, and
a shortage of new sales prospects, relationship marketing’s emphasis is on
customer satisfaction and repeat patronage (Kotler, 1991). Product/service
quality initiatives, responsive and direct communication with customers,
internal marketing, continuity or membership programs, customer-to-
customer compatibility, management, affective engineering campaigns, and
more detailed customer profiling leading to increased customization, are but
a few of the many strategies and tactics used to cement relationships with
6 JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 7 NO. 1 1998 pp. 6-26 © MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1061-0421
Relationship marketing: a
high-involvement product
attribute approach
Charles L. Martin
The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments offered on earlier drafts of
this manuscript by Raj Arora (University of Missouri, Kansas City), Denise T. Smart
(University of Nebraska, Omaha), Cindy Claycomb (Wichita State University),
Frederick B. Krafty (WSU), Dorothy Harpool (WSU) and three anonymous
reviewers.
An executive summary
for managers and
executives can be found
at the end of this article
Consumer-product
relationships
customers (Martin, 1996a). On balance, the empirical evidence suggests that
the practice of relationship marketing improves profitability and facilitates
company growth (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990).
From the firm’s perspective, the premier relationship is that between the firm
and its customers, although as many as 30 specific relationships with
internal and external constituencies have been recognized (Gummesson,
1994). From the customer’s perspective, a somewhat parsimonious model of
five categories of relationship marketing linkages was recently proposed by
Martin (1996b). His model includes the key linkage between the customer
and the business entity, but it also recognizes four other categories of highly
relevant linkages between the:
(1) customer and the company’s personnel,
(2) business and its personnel,
(3) customer and other customers, and
(4) customer and the company’s products and services.
It is this latter linkage – the relationships between customers and products
(or brands) – that is most relevant to the present study. Customer
relationships with brands help insulate the brands from competitors, and
sometimes from the company’s own mistakes (Shocker et al., 1994). When
the bond is particularly strong, customer sentiments toward the brand extend
beyond simply repeat purchase behavior or a preference based on cognitive
considerations; rather the perceived ties with the brand can become
emotionally-charged and based on intense affective considerations that – to
the casual observer – may defy logic and reason (Schlueter, 1992; Schwadel,
1987). So, the customer-brand linkage can be viewed as an important subset
of relationship marketing. However, important questions have been raised
regarding this linkage. For example, Fournier (1991) asks, “What drives the
nature of the consumer-object interaction? What are the fundamental
components of the various consumer object relations?” (p. 738). The present
study attempts to address these relational issues.
Product meaning
A product’s (or brand’s) meaning is the consumer’s perception or
interpretation of it (Kleine and Kernan, 1991), as well as his/her affective
reactions toward it (Friedmann, 1986; Szalay and Deese, 1978). That is,
products mean very little in and of themselves, apart from the meanings
ascribed to them by consumers. These meanings affect consumers,
perceptions of value (Richins, 1994) and purchase behaviors (Kleine and
Kernan, 1991). Therefore, “we cannot hope to understand consumer
behavior without first gaining some understanding of the meanings that
consumers attach to possessions” (Belk, 1988, p. 139).
In pinpointing product meanings, marketers are challenged by the multitude
of meanings that each product can represent. Meanings may be objective or
symbolic, shared or personal, or evoke a high or low emotional response
(Fournier, 1991). Favorite possessions may be elevated to “sacred” status
(Belk et al., 1989). The meanings of valued possessions also are derived
from enjoyment, interpersonal ties, a sense of identity, financial issues, and
objects’ appearance (Richins, 1994). Moreover, consumers do not simply
purchase and consume products at face value, they experience them
(Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982).
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 7 NO. 1 1998 7
Relationship marketing
linkages
Perceptions of value
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