Relationship Marketing Strategy Application to Destination Coventry

Relation Marketing Strategy
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Relationship Marketing Strategy
Relation marketing is a contemporary marketing theory that holds that the nature and strength of the relationship between a company and a customer will improve when it delivers quality and value to its customers. The relationship marketing approach focuses on customer retention, enhancing a long-term relationship with the buyer, and delivering value to the customer. Pricing of the product should not be dictated by competition but rather by negotiation and consensus and encourages marketing campaigns to focus on the target customer, tailoring their specific needs and wants. In addition, Relationship marketing emphasizes values such as trust, responsiveness to the customer, empathy, and commitment. The theory is applicable in a company that is customer-oriented such as destination Coventry as it creates a beneficial relationship between the buyer and the company. Thus, this paper seeks to analyze the effectiveness of the relationship marketing approach and its application to destination Coventry as a marketing strategy.
Coventry City is an award-winning tourist destination, being ranked the city of culture in 2021. Destination Coventry uses exhibitions and partnerships as a marketing mix. The proposed marketing mix of Destination Coventry includes product development, target market modification, place ( West Midlands), promotion ( social media strategy and presence), website, and environmentally conscience activities. Being a tourism industry, Destination Coventry depends on relationships and partnerships between the government, customers, suppliers, and marketing affiliates such as exhibitions, roadshows, and events to sell destination Coventry. Therefore, the Relationship Marketing theory will best fit Destination Coventry. Destination Coventry is a destination adorned with medieval history, art exhibitions, and monumental value features it receives approximately 8 million visitors annually. Thus, by providing personalized and meaningful experiences to visitors through partnerships ( Travel agents and tour operators), Destination Coventry will increase its brand visibility, and create a long-term relationship with its customers which will intern make profits.
Literature Review
Berry and Jackson proposed the theory and technique in 1983 and 1985, respectively (Yadav & Singh, 2014), in which the buyer and the seller has a more satisfying transaction. In today’s business world, companies are diverting from the commodity mentality as product quality is no longer a significant source of competitive advantage. Product quality is a common standard for many companies; thus, other approaches and interventions are best used by companies. To differentiate themselves, some companies use Relationship marketing as a means to set a competitive advantage, maintain their customers, and award loyalty. The change is fueled by organizational structures, culture shifts, and the availability of a robust database(Nwakanma et al., 2011). The shift is more rapid in some sectors and companies compared to others. Tourism is one of the sectors where the relationship marketing shift is happening rapidly. In addition, companies and marketers convert data into knowledge by insight, understanding, and information and apply this data to a mutually beneficial arrangement ( Shirazi,2011).
Further, some of the advantages of relationship marketing benefit both the buyer and the company. From relationship marketing, a company benefits from gaining a competitive advantage, profitability, product differentiation, and brand loyalty. On the other hand, the buyer benefits from dialogue with the company’s marketer, personalized attention from the customer, and the company’s effort to anticipate their wants and desires.
According to Aberle, the Relationship Marketing approach differs from the traditional marketing concept (2019). She argues that traditional marketing is sales-oriented while relationship marketing is customer and long-term oriented. Relationship marketing is significant as it links different stakeholders and approaches toward a common goal. These stakeholders include sales management, customer, strategic thinking, promotional relationship, customer relation management, legal promotions, database marketing, business-to-business marketing, business-to-customer marketing, and affinity marketing. Each forms a profitable solid relationship between the buyer and the seller (Zinkhan,2002).
Sales management identifies strategies to keep the customers engaged and up-to-date information with offers and promotions. The business-to-business approach enhances bulk buying and reselling the products to the consumer. This enhances a long-term engagement with a business, providing a long-term relationship that eventually translates to profits. Further, relationship marketing uses tools such as database technology, internal and external marketing, print-on-demand technology, and marketing mix(Nwakanma,2002).
According to Zinkhan ( 2002), the relationship marketing approach works best when the company invests in technology, builds an excellent customer service team, listens to customers' feedback, and uses the omnichannel approach. The omnichannel approach provides customers with a smooth shopping experience whether online or physically. Additionally, using an omnichannel approach ensures that there is a unification between communication, promotion, and distribution of the product between a business and a customer.
Further, relationship marketing incorporates the stakeholder's theory which is the capitalist view that emphasizes the interconnected relationship between a business and its suppliers, customers, employees, investors, and community The theory emphasizes organizational management and ethics in business which guides values and morals when managing an organization. This means that while marketing, a business is liable to its stakeholders to remain ethical while creating and enticing its customers. Since relation marketing involves the long-term relationship between a company and its customers, being true and authentic retains the relationship between customers and a company. This way all components of the relationship strategy will be achieved; profitability, loyalty, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.
According to research, technology plays a significant role in relationship marketing, in the current world. The emergence of new technology has shifted businesses to align with technologies that allow them to develop a marketing mix according to their customer's needs (Sleiman et al., 2021). According to Sleiman, customers are loyal if the company is committed to delivery, whether online or offline and brand association through different channels of technologies such as social media. Additionally, Sleiman argues that competitive advantage changed its course and in today's world, a business that is committed to customer satisfaction is likely to have a higher competitive power compared to a business committed to its products (Sleiman et al., 2021).
Further, relation marketing focuses on internal markets, referrals, employee markets, influence markets, supplier markets, and customer markets (Zinkhan, 2002). Thus, every stakeholder matter to see relationship marketing work. For instance, for destination Coventry, every supplier, influencer, customer, and employee will play a significant role to ensure the marketing campaign works.
Relationship Marketing and Destination Coventry.
Tourism is an industry that highly uses relationship marketing for its success. To maintain competition scope, the destination uses a destination marketing approach and relationship marketing to attract and retain visitors (Shirazi & Som, 2011). Thus, in as competition continues to grow, it is significant for a ...