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While U.S. companies now spend nearly $10,000 per year per, family of four, on advertising and promotion, a study found that television advertising returned only 32 cents for every dollar invested (“Does Marketing Need Reform," 2004). With over 3,000 marketing messages bombarding customers each day (McKenna, 1991, p. 74), the reason for poor return on investment may be information overload.
Customer relationship management (CRM) answers marketing’s cry for accountability through a focus on the long-term profitability of keeping customers for life. Still, although a reorientation toward retention and long-term customer relationships may theoretically diminish traditional marketing problems, there are many hurdles to be faced when applying relationship marketing. Many companies have jumped on the relationship marketing bandwagon in hopes of quick profits, only to conclude that relationships as a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) are merely an illusion. Relationship marketing, as implemented to date, has not proven to be a panacea.
Much like teenagers in love, marketers trying out relationships have acted in a naive fashion and have rushed through the relationship’s natural stages. Human relationships are natural phenomena and require time to develop. However, many marketers are acting in a fashion that reveals an incongruous fundamental set of principles. Marketers want the profits that CRM promises, but fail to do the relational “work“ this result requires.
Prosperity, wealth, success, and profits are a natural result of investing in sustainable well-being and relational health. Rather than adopting a model involving principles that foster long-term, sustainable relationships in a networked, complex environment, many marketers exhibit traits more like the Dr. Seuss character, “‘The Once-ler:’…business is business! And business must grow… I went right on biggering…selling more Thneeds.