Relationship marketing in consumer markets

Abstract

The ideas of relationship marketing have so far mainly been applied to industrial and services marketing, but may also have some relevance for consumer marketing. This paper suggests that marketing relationships will be easier to form in some types of consumer market than others, and that this inherent “relationship‐friendliness” will depend upon certain characteristics of both the market segment and the product field in question. A simple typology of consumer markets is proposed as a basis for further research in this field: it is suggested that suppliers can take action, including offering incentives, to increase the natural relationship potential of a particular product market, but that care should be taken to distinguish between actions that aim to develop marketing relationships and actions that are more appropriately interpreted and evaluated as sales promotions.