<p>Relationship marketing represents a trend in marketing to focus on mutual value creation and consumer retention by strengthening the connection between an organization and its customers. With the growing popularity of online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter as communication platforms, the networks have gained attention as tools that organizations can use to address current and potential consumers. To utilitize these networks, it is crucial for organizations to understand how consumers use the net-works, what attracts them towards communicating with organiza-tions on online social networks and what drives them to maintain these relationships in the long run.</p><p>This study examines the willingness of students, the dominant user base of online social networks, towards the  initiation of relation-ships with organizations on the networks Facebook and Twitter, and the drivers behind the relationship.</p><p>The  study was performed through a mixed method approach consisting of a quantitative survey study and a qualitative focus group discussion conducted at Jönköping University. The survey addressed the topics of usage patterns and adopter motivations, while the focus group attempted to explain and motivate the data gathered during the survey study. Both studies targeted Swedish and international students.</p><p>The students tended to be long-term users of the networks, and were positive towards communicating with organizations through the networks. However, the majority of respondents had not adopted relationship marketing through online social networks at this point in time. The respondents favored access to information and communication channels with peers as value offerings that would attract them to form relationships with organizations. Ulti-mately, relationship marketing on online social networks is com-pletely dependent on the consumer’s consent and wishes, and marketers must focus entirely on satisfying the concerns and re-quirements of its targeted users.</p><p> </p>

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how Stockholm based travel agencies understand and use relationship marketing and how it is perceived by customers.</p><p>Relationship marketing is defined by Grönroos as a building of relationships with customers to achieve mutual benefits. Four main objectives of relationship marketing were used to contextualise the term: service quality, personalisation, differentiation, and communica-tion.In order to answer the purpose, the authors have chosen to interview three travel agen-cies that focus on offering tailor made travel for different target groups. Sampling was used to find these travel agencies, as the total number of travel agencies in the Stock-holm area is too large to interview. Also, customers who have travelled with two of the travel agencies were interviewed. Further, several theoretical frameworks are presented in order to provide the reader with a view of relationship marketing, and were used in the design and the questions asked both companies and customers.</p><p>From the interviews with the companies it was found that all of them have different views of what relationship marketing is, and that they have different ways of imple-menting it. The views of relationship marketing differ from building a strong brand im-age to managing actual relationships with customers.</p><p>The main efforts of relationship marketing that the companies are involved in are delivering personalized travel and high service quality to customers.It was found in the interviews with customers that their view on what makes good ser-vice is similar to that of company views. What is most important to customers is that the perceived quality matches, or exceeds, the experienced one. There are several things that companies can do to attract and retain customers including having rewards clubs, sending out a moderate amount of newsletters, and providing a personal seller for customers.</p>

<p>During the 1980s and 1990s, commercial sponsorship grew with a rapid pace with an increase in worldwide spending from $2 billion in 1984 to $18.1 billion in 1997. Also, when the sponsorship market grew the interest amongst business researchers grew and finally became an own topic within business. Further, within marketing there was also a change occurring during the same time. It was an evolutionary paradigm shift from the marketing mix and the 4Ps to Relationship Marketing and the focus on long-term relationships. The marketing mix and the 4Ps had been the dominating model since the 1950s however when industries matured, market demand changed, competition increased and customers became more sophisticated and demanded more. Both the rapid growth within sponsorship and move to Relationship Marketing can mainly be explainedby the developments in Information Technology and globalization.</p><p>However, despite the increasing interest sponsorship and relationship marketing separately,few researchers have tried to combine these two even though several researchers have challenged others. In 2003, Farrelly and Quester studied the relationships between the sponsor and the sponsored. The intentions of the researchers are to extend this research to the relationships between the sponsor and their customers.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to explore how sponsors utilize sponsorship to build and maintain relationships with their customers. The intention is to create a foundation that can be later tested with the sponsors’ customers through a series of propositions. This study is done from the sponsors' perspective and in a B2B context. It is a qualitative research using six of the main sponsors as case studies for HV71, one of the largest ice hockey teams in Sweden. For the data collection the researchers used face-to-face interviews with managers from Husqvarna, Swedbank, Öhrlings PriceWaterhouseCoopers,Nybergs Bil, Ernst&Young and June Emballage.</p><p>The researchers have identified four different ways how sponsors utilize sponsorship to build and maintain relationships with their customers. The sponsors use sponsorship to create meeting places outside the business office, increase communication, add value totheir offerings and predict customer needs. The goal is to increase trust and value because when they increase, the relationship between the sponsor and customer grows stronger.</p>

<p><strong><p>Background</p><p>In Sweden almost 90% of businesses are micro in nature which plays a pivotal role in the economy by generating employment opportunities as well as serving a source of instilling entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. Due to their invaluable contributions to the economy, their survival through revenue generating marketing practices has become an area of much more interest than ever realized before. A common misconception prevalent is that marketing in micro businesses is just a miniature of larger enterprises. This is why earlier researchers have paid scarce treatment to marketing practices in micro businesses as evident from the scant published material on the topic, making it an intriguing area to study. Currently much hype has been created about social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc and their marketing value for small businesses. It is therefore, in this thesis we study social media and prevalent marketing practices in the context of micro business.</p><strong><p>Purpose</p><p>Micro firms are often cash-strapped which limits their revenue generating ability through prevalent marketing practices which are resource intensive. In the back drop of all the hype about social media as a marketing tool we got the clue to find the right marketing approaches for these businesses regarding the choice of prevalent practices and social media as a new marketing tool. To achieve this purpose, we have formulated the following research questions.RQ1.Which of the two types of marketing is more effective in terms of targeted segment coverage and expenditures? RQ2.Which marketing approach enables micro firms to maintain better relationships with customers? RQ3.Whether or not it is the right time for micro firms in Sweden to adopt social media marketing practices?</p><strong><p>Method</p><p>A qualitative approach has been used to achieve the exploratory purpose of the thesis. Overall; eight micro firms were chosen from a convenience sample, representing different regions and industries of Sweden. In the first phase, two pilot semi-structured interviews were conducted to attain a better understanding of the phenomenon under study. Later, six more semi-structured interviews were carried out from micro businesses representing different sectors in Skövde, Mariestad and Jönköping Counties.</p><strong><p>Conclusion</p><p>This thesis suggests that micro businesses are mostly marketing weak organizations (MWO) as they are sales oriented and see marketing as more of a luxury. Micro businesses in the sample reveal a tendency to carry out marketing activities in a haphazard manner which limits their likelihood of achieving their targets. It has also been indicated that conventional approach to reach target segments, still has a strong effect on micro firms in Sweden and is therefore more</p><p>appropriate for them as majority of their customers are geographically concentrated as well as a major strata of these are yet to start active participation on the social media landscape. In terms of costs social media</p><p>Given, the small population of Sweden, it has also been showed that micro businesses are keeping good customer relationship with customers via word-of-mouth marketing which is considered as instrumental for success of majority of micro business. At the same time, this finding does not indicate any clear picture as to which form of marketing is doing better for these businesses.</p><p>In terms of social media adoption the findings indicate that micro businesses see social media as a great marketing opportunity in which micro businesses can compete on a level playing field with their larger counterparts. This study also concludes that social media is in infancy stages of its development in Sweden as people though they are present on the social media landscape, but have not yet, thought of it as a mainstream marketing channel. Therefore, it is suggested that micro firms in Sweden need to adpot a</p>(high volume, low expense) is more effective only when used in tandem with conventional marketing (low volume, high expense) approaches. It is therefore suggested that micro businesses can use a blend of social and conventional marketing practices till the time that the social media network externalizes to a greater extent. wait and see approach for the time being and start preparing to capitalize on social media soon when it becomes ripe and ready for marketing. </strong></strong></strong></strong></p>

<p>Som människa i dagens samhälle blir man, varje dag, exponerad av ett mycket stort antal marknadsföringsbudskap i form av annonser och reklam, ett antal som är omöjligt för en enskild individ att ta in. Företag har därför svårt att nå ut till sina segment utan att spendera stora resurser på sin marknadsföring. Word-of-mouth (WOM) kan beskrivas som det in-formella rykte vilket förmedlas mellan konsumenter och som innehar en större trovärdighet och genomslagskraft än den traditionella marknadsföringen. Om företag skulle kunna på-verka och kontrollera WOM så skulle detta kunna leda till en viss konkurrensfördel. Kun-der inom servicesektorn, som till exempel hotellindustrin, är speciellt påverkade av denna informella information i deras val av hotell och tjänster. Därför har hotellindustrin fungerat som utgångspunkt för denna studie av fenomenet WOM och hur det kan kontrolleras av företagen. Hotellen som ingår i studien är geografisk belägna inom Jönköpingsområdet.</p><p>Syftet med studien och uppsatsen är att försöka undersöka om och hur WOM är påverkat av de utvalda hotellen i studien och observera de olika metoder som kan har en inverkan på WOM.</p><p>Metoden för insamlandet av primär data är av kvalitativ natur. Där någon från de utvalda hotellens administrativa personal har blivit intervjuad för att svara på frågor som berör denna studie över fenomenet WOM. Sekundär data har samlats in från relevanta artiklar och böcker för att bidra till en så trovärdig analys som möjligt. Teorin behandlar WOM, service och relationsmarknadsföring.</p><p>Författarna avslutar med slutsatsen att det finns en medvetenhet hos respondenterna om WOM och dess betydelse för företaget. Det verkar finnas en större medvetenhet av att ak-tivt försöka minimera negativ WOM än att aktivt försöka influera den positiva WOM. Det fanns indikationer på att hotellen på något sätt använder metoder som man tror generera positiv WOM. Problemet verkar vara svårigheten att utvärdera vad som egentligen är skill-naden mellan relationsmarknadsföring och WOM marknadsföring i några av de metoder som hotellen tror kan genera positive WOM. Hotellets storlek/finansiella resurser verkar också ha en viss betydelse för om hotellen säger sig använda eller vara beroende av WOM. Så även om det fanns vissa åtgärder som kan generera positiv WOM så finns det en passiv attityd hos respondenterna mot att man verkligen kan kontrollera det. Men genom att skaf-fa sig större insikt om hur WOM och de nuvarande marknadsmetoder som används hör samman, tror författarna att hotellen kan bli mer effektiva i sin marknadsföring.</p> / <p>Since a normal person of today is exposed to a vast number of marketing messages from conventional marketing methods like advertising campaigns and commercials, the con-sumer will have to make a choice from all these offers conveyed through promotional ef-forts. Word-of-mouth (WOM) is the informal communication about a service or product between consumers. This can be said to serve as a credibility filter for the consumer be-cause of its perceived independence and trustworthiness. Gaining control of WOM from the company’s point of view could create a competitive advantage over competitors in the market place. Service industries, such as the hotel industry, are highly affected by WOM and therefore hotels were chosen in the Jönköping region in order to study the company awareness and ability to control the WOM phenomenon.</p><p>The purpose of the thesis is to investigate if WOM is a factor which is controlled by the hotel firms and to detect and describe how this is done and what kind of the marketing methods that are being used.</p><p>The method chosen by the authors of the thesis in order to gather primary data was of a qualitative nature were interviews were conducted together with appropriate hotel manag-ers of hotels in the Jönköping region in order to study their view on the WOM phenome-non. Secondary data was collected from relevant theoretical articles and books in order to carry out the analysis of the primary data. The theoretical framework consists of theory concerning WOM, service and relationship marketing.</p><p>The authors of the thesis conclude that there is awareness among the respondents about the power of WOM and its importance for the business. However, there seem to be a greater consciousness of using actions for minimizing negative WOM than consciously in-fluence the spread of positive WOM. Some actions taken by the hotels are indeed believed to generate positive WOM but there appears to be a thin line between creating relationship and actually influencing the spread of positive WOM, this perhaps due to the problem of the WOM evaluation of the actions taken. Size/financial mean also seem to be important factors on the hotels dependence on WOM the action taken to try to generate positive WOM. Even though some methods were detected that were thought to harness WOM, there is still a rather passive attitude among the respondents towards actually being able to influence WOM to its full extent. By gaining more insights of WOM and the marketing methods currently used, the authors of the thesis believe that hotels studied would become more efficient in their marketing efforts.</p>

Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η διερεύνηση και η μελέτη της μετασχηματιστικής ηγεσίας (Transformational Leadership) των σύγχρονων managers, τους τρόπους με τους οποίους εφαρμόζεται, καθώς επίσης και τα αποτελέσματα που μπορεί να έχει στην απόδοση των εργαζομένων. Επίσης, μελετά την σχέση του σύγχρονου αυτού τρόπου διοίκησης με τις διαπροσωπικές και επιχειρηματικές σχέσεις. Στο [Κεφάλαιο 1] δίνεται ο ορισμός της ηγεσίας ως «μία διαδικασία επηρεασμού των δράσεων μιας ομάδας ατόμων με σκοπό την επίτευξη στόχων», ενώ μία σημαντική διαφορά του ηγέτη από τον μάνατζερ είναι ότι ο ηγέτης δημιουργεί οράματα στους ανθρώπους και τους εμπνέει, ενώ ο μάνατζερ επικεντρώνεται σε διαδικασίες, συστήματα και στη λογική. Από όλες τις θεωρίες ηγεσίας που παρουσιάζονται στη συνέχεια, ιδιαίτερη έμφαση δίνεται στη Μετασχηματιστική Ηγεσία μέσω της οποίας μετασχηματίζονται οι προσδοκίες, οι αντιλήψεις και τα κίνητρα των εργαζομένων προς ένα κοινό στόχο. Στο [Κεφάλαιο 2] αναλύονται οι σχέσεις των εργαζομένων μιας επιχείρησης και ο βαθμός ικανοποίησης τους στο χώρο εργασίας. Για το λόγο αυτό εισάγεται η έννοια του «εσωτερικού μάρκετινγκ» μία πτυχή της οποία είναι η αλληλεπίδραση προϊσταμένων-υφισταμένων. Η σχέση αυτή συνοψίζεται στο ότι «δεν μπορείς να έχεις ευτυχισμένους πελάτες αν δεν έχεις ευτυχισμένο προσωπικό». Στο [Κεφάλαιο 3] αναπτύσσεται η έννοια του Σχεσιακού Μάρκετινγκ ως ένα είδος στρατηγικής που έχει στόχο την ανάπτυξη και διατήρηση μόνιμων σχέσεων μεταξύ των επιχειρήσεων και των πελατών τους. Στο [Κεφάλαιο 4] παρουσιάζεται η ερευνητική μεθοδολογία που ακολουθήθηκε, ενώ στο [Κεφάλαιο 5] οι στατιστικές αναλύσεις των δεδομένων από τα ερωτηματολόγια σε πίνακες ή γραφήματα. Στο τελευταίο κεφάλαιο συνοψίζονται τα [Συμπεράσματα] και διερευνάται η δυνατότητα επέκτασης της έρευνας σε μία ευρύτερη περιοχή και σύγκρισή της με ευρωπαϊκά δεδομένα. / The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and study the Transformational Leadership of modern managers, the ways in which it is applied, and the results it has on employee performance. Also, the relationship of modern management with interpersonal and business relationships is studied.In In [Chapter 1] the definition of leadership is given as "a process of influencing the actions of a group of people to achieve goals", while a significant difference of the leader vs. manager is that the leader creates visions to people and inspires them, while the manager focuses in processes, systems and logic. Of all the leadership theories presented below, particular emphasis is placed on Transformational Leadership through which transformed expectations, perceptions and motivations of employees towards a common goal.In [Chapter 2] the relationships of employees of a company and the level of satisfaction in the workplace is analyzed. For this reason the concept of an "internal marketing" is introduced one aspect of which is the heads-current interaction. The Relationship is summarized in that "you can not have happy customers unless you have happy staff." [Chapter 3] follows the concept of Relational Marketing as a kind of strategy that aims to develop and maintain sustainable relationships between businesses and their customers. In [Chapter 4] the research methodology is presented, while in [Chapter 5] the statistical analisis of the data from the questionnaires is visualized in tables and graphs. The last chapter summarizes the [Conclusions] and investigates the possibility of extending the research to a wider area comparing it with European standards.

Although little empirical evidence exists to support this contention, the extant literature suggests that firms can potentially achieve two types of benefits from developing a CRM orientation: (1) increased efficiency in the allocation of resources destined for relationship building and maintenance activities, and (2) enhanced exchange relationship outcomes through the provision of superior customer value (Zablah, Bellenger, and Johnston 2004). This effort focused on the latter of these purported benefits and sought to answer the following two fundamental questions: (1) does a CRM orientation influence the outcome of customer-provider relationships and, if so, how; and (2) does CRM technology have an effect on the relative success of CRM initiatives? In an attempt to address these questions, a conceptual model of "CRM success" was advanced and tested utilizing data from, both, customers and their providers. The conceptual model, which is based on interactive communications theory, posits that a CRM orientation has a positive effect on the quality of the product, service and planned interaction messages providers convey to their customers. The model also suggests that the quality of these messages directly influences customer-perceived relationship value which, in turn, drives other relationship attitudes, perceptions and, ultimately, customers’ behavioral intentions. Finally, the model proposes a moderating role for CRM technology: the association between CRM orientation and message quality is expected to increase (decrease) as the assimilation of CRM technology within firms increases (decreases). The model was tested utilizing (multi-level) SEM techniques. The results provide partial support for the proposed model and suggest the following: 1. As firms’ level of CRM orientation increases, customer-perceived message quality decreases. This inverse relationship between CRM orientation and message quality does not hold true across accounts of different sizes. For large accounts, message quality tends to increase as firms’ level of CRM orientation increases while the opposite holds true for small and medium-sized accounts. 2. The relationship between CRM orientation and message quality is not contingent upon the extent to which firms have assimilated CRM technology. Rather, firms’ level of CRM technology assimilation appears to exert a direct effect upon message quality. 3. Customer-perceived relationship value (CPRV) mediates the effect that product, planned and service messages exert upon customers’ relationship attitudes, perceptions and, ultimately, behavioral intentions.

No description available.

Submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Business Administration, Department of Entrepreneurial Studies and Management, Durban University of Technology, 2009. / The purpose of this study is to identify the influence of customer-supplier relationships through facilitation of credit on the development of Micro enterprises in the Sobonakhona Makhanya Tribal Area of KZN. This study originates from the fact that there are many SMME‟s in South Africa, absorbing about 15 million people (DTI, 1995:7). Even though this sector is providing most of the employment in the country, they still find it difficult to arrange funds to start or expand their businesses. Lending institutions do not want to provide finance for them, and if they do, they do it with reluctance and reservations. As a result, SMME‟s are not able to grow and develop into big businesses. This is a quantitative and exploratory research study which was used to explore, for the first time in Sobonakhona Makhanya Tribal area, the relationship between customer-supplier relationships and accessibility of credit facilities. The study made use of questionnaires to obtain the respondents‟ perceptions on the research questions developed. A questionnaire that consisted of 35 questions was distributed to 50 SMME owners in Adams Mission, Madundube and Umbumbulu (AMU) villages. Cronbach‟s reliability analysis was not applied as it was not appropriate for use with this questionnaire. The research showed that a relationship between customers and suppliers assists SMME‟s to obtain access to credit facilities. Added to this, SMME owners, who had access to credit facilities, experienced positive changes in their businesses. This serves to prove that access to credit is essential for the development of SMME‟s. As a result, recommendations to train and educate SMME owners on how to manage their businesses, how to apply for credit and the requirements needed for applications have been set out.

AbstractTitle: How Marknadsdata information AB works with relationship marketingLevel: Final Thesis for bachelor degree in Business AdministrationAuthor: Randip ChoudhurySupervisor: Dr. Aihie OsarenkhoePurpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Marknadsdata information AB workswith their relationship marketing, and examine possible gaps between their strategy andimplementation of their relationship marketing. This study aims to provide insights on thecore components of CRM and the implementation of CRM strategy.Methodology: I have used primary data for this study by doing, interviews with ChristerJönsson at Marknadsdata AB to get his insight view of how the company operates to be ableto answer the purpose of this thesis which is to find out if there are any gaps in the way howMarknadsdata AB operates its business and how it resembles or differs with Donaldson’smodel. The secondary data I have used for this research is mainly from the Internet, articlesand literatureFindings: Marknadsdata information AB will not be successful on their market if they don’twork with their relationship marketing strategy. They have to keep in touch with customers,respond to the trends in the market and, in particular, to the changing demands of customers.For Marknadsdata information AB it’s important with relationship marketing both internallyand externally. Internal service quality for the company is about employee satisfaction whichultimately effects externally to customer satisfaction. By creating value to employees they cancreate value to customers.Research conclusions: Companies will not be successful on the market until they developtheir relationship marketing strategy. Companies need to keep in touch with customers,respond to the trends in the market and, in particular, to the changing demands of customers.Practical implications: By working with research and evaluating customers’ needs, which Ifound will reflect their future business. I think it’s also important that the management at thecompany works with employee’s on a regular basis. If the company doesn’t work with marketresearch and other customer generating mechanisms I think that the company is going to havedifficulties with their relationship work and to be able to make business at their market area.Value: The study shows customer relationship marketing strategy as a key to operate businessand implementing it in the organization. This thesis contributes a deeper understanding in thesubject relationship marketing.Keywords: Customer relations, Customer service management, Relationship marketing,Cross-functional integration, Management strategy