Abstract Background: Micro-sized family businesses are facing great challenges in nowadays competitive markets. Marketing is one of the most essential fields if a company wants to suc-ceed. Traditional marketing reveal more and more disadvantages, with competition that is constantly rising, technological marketing methods that are breaking down geographical bur-dens and consumer markets that are getting more demanding. One way to step away from the traditional marketing patterns and differentiate is the implementation and usage of relation-ship marketing. As a novel strategic method, the focus shifts from the product to building a loyal customer relationship foundation. Purpose: Consequently the purpose of this thesis is to investigate which factors influence an implementation of relationship marketing in micro-size family businesses. Using a case study, we will investigate how the potential theories can be successfully translated into reality when using relationship marketing in micro family firms. For reaching this goal, we will mainly identify several influences that impact a relationship marketing implementation in micro family businesses. Method: The data used for our case study has been collected through email in-terviews. Using an abductive approach and a qualitative analysis we are investigating and analysing specific factors and their influence on relationship marketing in micro family busi-nesses, in particular Casa Canela. Although one case cannot act as a role model and offer generalisable suggestions on all micro sized family firms, it presents an interesting example of one case and we hope that the outcomes and results can offer a guideline and inspiration to other micro family businesses as well. Conclusion: All in all, this thesis suggests that relationship marketing can benefit micro-sized family businesses. Moreover, factors like the owner-managers, the location, the financial situation and long-term goals influence the implementation of this strategy. With the help of our case firm Casa Canela and the analysed factors, we concluded that relationship marketing can provide a solid foundation for a successful business performance in the long-run.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-16835 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Gallay, Lisa, Iovu, Mihaela |
| Publisher | Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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