The Development of the Marketing Thought Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Development of the Marketing Thought - Essay Example These forces, while closely interrelated, produced fickle consumer markets which are more sensitive to price, services, and such other features which create customer value that a slight difference would equate to huge economic losses. From transactional marketing to relational marketing follows a tool for building customer relationships: customer relationship management. If developed and implemented effectively, Strategic CRM has been a guiding tool for most businesses today in competition-filled markets for without a loyal customer base, the business will eventually remain stagnant and cease to exist. After more than a decade of confining the marketing concept as â€Å"a process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives,† the American Marketing Association developed another definition of marketing, describing it as â€Å"...an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.† ... s, marketing evolved from a cold means to maneuver a product into the market in both ways strategical and tactical to a humanitarian obligation that likewise yields two-way benefits; only that in the second definition, marketing purports to be the only tool to stay profitable in the industry taking into consideration the radical changes in the business environment. In brief from a product-oriented approach, organizations now divert their attention to their customers and in creating a profitable rapport with them. Marketing Paradigm Shift? The so-called shift in marketing paradigm is seemingly misguiding as what a few authors contest. What is considered a paradigm shift is not applicable to how the marketing concept evolved from transactional into being relational. Some studies have indicated that transactional and relational marketing may still co-exist today although the former is slowly dominated by the latter with the rise of the web technology where direct marketing became virtua lly possible not to mention, efficient for both buyer and seller. Business firms used to concentrate only on the mass production of goods with less or without particular consideration to consumer relations knowing that the consumers will patronize such products anyway through an unsegmented promotional technique. There was technically no form of personality and individuality -- absence of a human touch. In the business equation, there were only enthusiastic retailers and submissive buyers; therefore in theory, businesses did not consider the profitability of confining the emotional link in between human transactions. In the early 1980s, Len Berry coined the term relationship marketing, describing it as the strategical approach that invites, improves, and maintains customer relationships.