آمادگی بازاریابی ارتباطی: پیش زمینه نظری و جهت های اندازه گیری Relationship marketing readiness: theoretical background and measurement directions

Introduction In 2015, I described the purpose of relationship marketing as: [. . .] to identify and establish, maintain and enhance, and when necessary terminate relationships with customers (and other parties) so that the objectives regarding economic and other variables of all parties are met. This is achieved through a mutual making and fulfilment of promises (Grönroos, 2015, p. 281). This purpose statement is based on a relationship marketing definition, which I first suggested in 1989 (Grönroos, 1989) and which then was considered the most comprehensive definition in the literature (Harker, 1999). To the best of my knowledge, this is still the case. In 2006, based on the promise theory (Calonius, 2006), I added a promise management description of marketing: Marketing is a customer focus that permeates organizational functions and processes and is geared toward making promises through value proposition, enabling the fulfilment of individual expectations created by such promises, and fulfilling such expectations through support to customers’ value-generating processes, thereby supporting value creation in the firm’s as well as its customers’ and other stakeholders’ processes (Grönroos, 2006, p. 407). Originally, the relationship marketing concept and term were introduced by Leonard Berry in a conference paper at the American Marketing Association’s second special conference on service marketing in 1982 (Berry, 1983). Today, relationship marketing is considered a field of marketing, but no common view seems to exist in regard to what it really is and what it includes. This hinders a firm analysis and development of the field. As Storbacka and Lehtinen (2001, p. 23) has emphasized, in relationship marketing, it is not only a matter of getting a larger share of the customer’s wallet but to “[. . .] win as large share as possible of the customer’s heart, mind, and wallet”. This is also one key avenue forward proposed by Sheth (2017) in his recent commentary on the future of relationship marketing. The purpose of this commentary is to present an approach to relationship marketing based on the service logic and promise theory (Calonius, 2006) that develops a model of relationship marketing readiness (RMR) analysis. Because the main challenges in relationship marketing relate to maintaining and enhancing relationships with customers, and not to establishing them, this commentary and the RMR analysis focus on the firm’s readiness to maintain and enhance relationships. The approach is managerial, and only the supplying part’s readiness for relationship marketing is included. In a next phase, a reciprocal RMR analysis should be developed.