APPLYING RELATIONSHIP MARKETING PRINCIPLES BASED ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION RESEARCH IN A DIRECT MARKETING COMPANY IN ROMANIA

Abstract

The present paper focuses on presenting how customer satisfaction research can enable companies to build long-term relationships with their customers. Relationship marketing approach is of paramount importance to companies that want to thrive in this highly competitive environment. Scholars affirm that maintaining and building a relationship (Hollensen, 2010) with your already existing customers is a better focus than the one time deal approach. The paper proceeds in the following manner: first, the theoretical foundations of relationship marketing and customer satisfaction research are reviewed; second, there are analyzed the possibilities of implementing the principles in a direct marketing company; third, the research team presents a case study consisting of an empirical research with 392 respondents on measuring customer satisfaction of a Romanian direct marketing company with the aim of identifying the specific elements that help build satisfying and long-term relationships

Keywords

• relationship, direct marketing, customer satisfaction research

References

1. Cuthbertson, Richard and Messenger, Steve (2006), “Marrying Market Research and Customer Relationship Marketing”, Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 109-120
2. Dick, Alan and Basu, Kunal (1994), “Customer Loyalty: Towards an Integrated
3. Conceptual Framework”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 99-113
4. Diller, Hermann (2000), Customer Loyalty: Fata Morgana or Realistic Goal?
5. Managing Relationships with Customers, in Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten and Hansen, Ursula (2000), Relationship Marketing: Gaining Competitive Advantage
6. Through Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention, Berlin: Springer Eiriz, Vasco and Wilson, Dom (2006), “Research in relationship marketing: antecedents, traditions and integration”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 40, no. 3/4, pp. 275-291
7. Etgar, Michael (1976), “Channel Domination and Countervailing Power in
8. Distributive Channels”, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 254-   Gengler, E.Charles and Leszczyc, Peter (1997), “Using Customer Satisfaction

9. Research for RelationshipMarketing: A DirectMarketing Approach”, Journal of Direct Marketing, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 23-29
10. Gummesson, Evert (2008), Total Relationship Marketing, Boston: Butterworth- Heinemann
11. Hennig-Thurau, T. and Hansen, U. (2000), Relationship Marketing: Gaining
12. Competitive Advantage Through Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention, Berlin: Springer Hollensen, Svend (2010), Marketing Management: a Relationship Approach, Prentice Hall
13. Kotler, Philip and Keller, Kevin Lane (2009), A Framework for Marketing
14. Management (Fourth Edition), Pearson Education Marshall, J., Vredenburg, H. (1988), “Successfully using telemarketing in industrial sales”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 17, Iss. 1, pp. 15-22
15. Oliver, Richard W. (1994), “The Death of Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 34-45
16. Payne, Adrian (2005), Handbook of CRM - Achieving Excellence in Customer
17. Marketing, Butterworth-Heinemann Pop, Al. Nicolae (2006), “O nouă paradigmă în marketingul contemporan: marketingul rela ional”, Management & Marketing Journal, vol. 3, pp. 34-44
18. Rapp, Stan and Collins, Tom (1990), The Great Marketing Turnaround, Prentice Hall
19. Rust, R.T. and Oliver, R.L. (1994), Service quality: insights and managerial implications from the frontier, Service Quality: New directions in theory and practice, CA: Sage Publications
20. Spiller, Lisa and Baier, Martin (2010), Contemporary Direct & Interactive
21. Marketing, Pearson Education Thomas, Andrew, Lewison, Dale and Hauser, William (2008), Direct marketing in action: cutting-edge strategies for finding and keeping the best customers,
22. Greenwood Publishing Turban, Efraim, King, David and Lang, Judy (2009), Introduction to Electronic
23. Commerce, Pearson Education Vaduva, Sebastian, Fotea, Ioan and Corcea, Mihai (2010a), “Implementing
24. Relationship Marketing as a Strategy in a Catalog Company”, 5th International Conference on Business Excellence 2008, Brasov, Romania, published in the Conference Proceedings (ISBN 9789731747248 – vol. 2)
25. Vaduva, Sebastian, Fotea, Ioan and Corcea, Mihai (2010b), “Workforce
26. Engagement in a Catalog Company”, 6th International Conference on “Integrarea Europeană – noi provocări pentru economia României” at the University of Oradea, Romania, published in the Conference Proceedings