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Executive Summary
Relationship Marketing: An Answer to the Marketing Crisis
Marketing is undergoing a tumultuous crisis. Marketing has “overspent and underdelivered” (Sheth & Sisodia, 1995, p. 9). Marketers are creating a dizzying array of more products, but with more competitors. 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). Marketing’s crisis hinges on a lack of accountability—a lack of trustworthy, value-building behavior.
Relationship marketing answers the call for change. Relationship marketing and its application, customer relationship management (CRM), address the accountability problem through a focus on the long-term profitability of keeping customers for life.