It is important to underline that relationships both drive and are driven by the context where they
take place (Fournier, Dobscha and Mick 1998), that “marketing is context driven” (Egan 2003, 154) and that it is “important to recognize the context in which exchanges take place” (Möller and Halinen 2000, 41). But, many within the academy constituency remained skeptical, arguing that
due to the size of consumer markets, the nature of competition, the anonymity of customers, the limited interaction between consumer and organization and the difficulties associated with
potentially intrusive technology, developing relationships (or, at least, interpersonal relationships)
in consumer markets was inappropriate (O´Malley and Tynan 2000; Thompson et al 2000).
Maybe it would be better to view relationships as being diverse rather than adhering to one
common format of development from arms-length to increasingly close relationships. Thus, it is important to re-consider what a relationship in a consumer market context means. However, in
these markets, the concept rarely is defined at all, constituting a “glaring omission” (Bagozzi 1995, p. 275). The term “relationship” is often used to underpin a supplier’s marketing activities,
to the neglect of the customers’ perspective, although a relationship takes two (Fournier, Dobscha
and Mick 1998). The establishment of customer relationships appears to have been equated with the concept of customer retention (which includes loyalty programs and database marketing).
However, viewing the establishment of customer relationships as something as simple as the next
stage in the manipulation of consumer data will detract from a relationship approach and does a
disservice to the complexity of the concept (Dibb and Meadows 2001). Also assuming that a
“relationship” is what customers’ want or need, even when sometimes they are not even aware
they are participating, might mean a new kind of marketing myopia (Fernandes and Proença,
2008).
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