Customer compliance has become a pivotal consideration in the marketing strategies of lifestyle management programmes. Previous research has shown that the better customers comply with the directives of service providers, the higher their levels of customer satisfaction (Dellande, 1999). There are numerous lifestyle management programmes available on the market today. Many of these programmes have been linked to the usage of a nutritional product range as a pre-requisite for entering the programme. The investigation of customer compliance in lifestyle management programmes is very important because many of the major societal problems of today, such as high-fat diets, poor physical fitness, substance abuse and smoking, exist because people make poor health choices. Most of the leading causes of death could be reduced substantially if people at risk change five behaviours, namely non-compliance with beneficial health behaviours, poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking and alcohol and drug abuse. The many societal ills related to non-compliance with the aforementioned five behaviours and the dearth of knowledge about the determinants of customer compliance were the main motivations for this study. Another important goal, underlying the motivation for this study, was to understand the relationship between role clarity, role ability, motivation, customer satisfaction and goal attainment. Motivation, which for the purpose of this study has been divided into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, proved to be the strongest predictor of customer compliance. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data from 155 respondents who have successfully completed a lifestyle management programme. The results of the first regression model indicated that two of the four independent variables, namely “customers’ role ability” and “intrinsic motivation”, are statistically significant, positive predictors of the dependent variable “customer compliance”. The other two independent variables, “customer role clarity” and “extrinsic motivation”, are not statistically significant predictors of “customer compliance”. The results of the second regression model indicated that “customer compliance” and “customer goal attainment” are statistically significant positive predictors of the dependent variable “customer satisfaction” The most important construct of the study, highlighted in Chapter 6 as well as in the study by Dellande (1999), is customer motivation. If a customer is not motivated, compliance levels will not be sufficient to generate high levels of customer satisfaction. Customer motivation was divided into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation with intrinsic motivation proving to have a stronger correlation with customer compliance than extrinsic motivation. The study was conducted across three different organisations. Research has also suggested that more than half of the customers who commence with a lifestyle management programme never complete the programme or revert to the original lifestyle they followed prior to commencement of the programme. This could have a negative effect on their satisfaction levels. It is, therefore, imperative to ensure that all customers who join a lifestyle management programme are motivated and are able to comply with the directives of the programme to ensure the successful completion thereof. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Marketing Management / MCom / Unrestricted

The main aim of this thesis, „An Examination of the Marketing and Relationship Marketing Concepts, by Analysing Power, Disciplining and Compliance in Customer-Provider Relations‟, is to expand knowledge and thinking in the subject area of marketing by researching power, disciplining and compliance in relations between customers and providers. As such, it is part of current developments in marketing theory, as the following discussion will illustrate. Marketing is a dynamic and evolving discipline (Saunders and Lee 2005) and has been enriched by the introduction of significant new topics such as consumer passion, longing, gift giving, and history of ownership (Belk et al. 2003; Lowrey et al. 2004). The „variety and eclecticism‟ in current marketing research (Saunders and Lee 2005) have been achieved partly by drawing on frameworks, concepts and models developed in other disciplines (Baumgartner 2002). In recent years, „a more open minded attitude to research‟ and „methodological relaxation‟ have been encouraged (Tapp and Hughes 2008), and new methodological approaches have been explored (e.g. Thompson 1998, 2002; Sherry and Schouten 2002). Moreover, the supremacy of experimental-nomothetic methodological positions of quantification is being questioned (Fournier and Glenn Mick 1999) and, even though quantitative research continues to dominate (Hanson and Grimmer 2007), previously „unconventional‟ methodologies such as narrative analysis and hermeneutical frameworks demonstrate the growing acceptability of a wider range of methodologies (Saunders and Lee 2005). Such developments in marketing thought and approaches result from the identification of weaknesses or gaps in the conventional received wisdom on the subject (Wells 1993), and so place existing interpretations under scrutiny (Dawes and Brown 2000). However, commentators suggest that further growth and development are required. For instance, while Svensson (2006) argues that traditionalism still predominates, Tapp and Hughes (2004) and Katsiekas et al. (2007) invite scholars to analyse new topics and areas which are pertinent to practitioners and which contribute to a better understanding of marketing practice. At stake is the degree to which marketing research offers practitioners and society something „novel‟ and „of relevance‟ (Gummesson 2005). For marketing thinking to develop further, topics which are as yet inadequately researched need to be analysed more systematically (Katsiekas et al. 2007). An example of such a topic is the expression of power, influencing, disciplining and relational problems during interactions between customers and providers (Brown et al. 2000; Keysuk 2000; Ivens and Blois 2004). Though present in marketing theory, there are aspects of power which deserve greater attention. Examples of such issues are the types of power applied by providers and the ways in which providers design and carry out the disciplining of consumers during interactions in order to make them more compliant. These are the issues addressed in this thesis.

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