Relationship Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Relationship Marketing - Essay Example Consumer behavior is rapidly changing in today’ s world. Most of this changing behavior stems from rapidly evolving technology and its growing importance in our life. The emergence of Web 2.0 has also made it possible. It has helped pave way for door to content driven information which could either make one’s business or bring it down. Thus technology has a strong relationship with consumer behavior and eventually its impact on the purchasing behavior of customers. Social networking sites have opened new paradigms in marketing and relational marketing. Most social networking sites, for instance facebook are educational model tools that voice out what that niche of people wants. Models like yahoo, msn and other search engines have come up before but could never generate the community like feeling. Today companies are very accessible to the consumers because people are talking back to back with them. Other factors have also affected relational marketing.With the advent of the retailing era, products and pricing alone cannot target customers. Customers who enter a store with the advent of purchasing might return empty handed due to a number of factors. Though one of the factors is the unavailability of the products they need but there are a number of factors which might deter them. They include not being able to find the product, being unsure about the product because the store atmosphere doesn’t allow them to judge it properly and being uncomfortable in the store. The store might not appeal to them and the shopping experience is not as convenient as they would like it to be and they leave in order to buy that better shopping experience. ... (D Walters and D White, 1987). It involves communicating a positive product image to the customer and also ensuring that the customer decodes it well thus leading to positive behavioral outcome leading to purchase. The basic aim of the retailer is to trigger a customer to make a purchase. For this three major steps are to be followed. The first one should cause the customer to enter the shop. This can be caused by the shops exterior including both the exterior landscape, the board and the window display. The second effort is made to retain the customer in the store for as long as possible which is attained by making the ambience pleasing and the store comfortable. The third and the decision making process of buying is greatly affected by the product display and availability which is ensured by clean products on display in an efficient manner. The interior design of the store can greatly affect the customers psychologically, lowering their defenses and removing their doubts, encourage them to make purchases and maintain interest in the store. (Kotler, 1974). Thus all marketers are unanimous in agreeing with the fact that store design is one of the main factors behind customer store choice decisions. Other factors include pricing, distance and size of the outlet. Previously the emphasis was on the display of the products but now marketers also have to lay emphasis on the elements which excite the senses of the shoppers. Frequently used elements are smells, lighting, flat screen videos and graphics and flooring (McGoldrick, 1990) Visual merchandising involves using four basic design elements namely lighting, cleanliness, design layout and product display. These are also called orienting factors, signage and atmospherics by