Relationship Marketing of services-perspectives Essay

Relationship Marketing of services-perspectives - Essay Example As Evert Gummesson (1999) advocates total relationship marketing as " Marketing based on relationships, networks and interaction, recognizing that marketing is embedded in the total management of the networks of the selling organization, the market and society". It is directed to long term, win-win relationships with individual customers, the value is jointly created between the parties involved". In the above context if we look at affinity cards networks of relationship we can easily see three parties which are involved in the relationship network are; affinity credit card issuing bank, charity or political parties or universities or other types of such organizations and the customer who held and actually using the affinity credit cards and also members of above mentioned organizations. Basically affinity cardholders are members of a particular organization or somewhat related to organizations in the form of any relationship. It may be direct or indirect like supporters of any club or political parties. Basic relationship exists between actual affinity card users and the organization to which they belongs or affiliate directly or indirectly. On the basis of such relationships organizations develop or forge a networked relationship with the bank. The second type of relationship exists between organization and the affinity card issuing branch/bank. The relationship between bank and organization depend on mutual benefits. Bank gets the loyal customers from the memberships of the organization who use their affinity credit cards and in exchange, organization gets some monetary benefits as agreed upon by the organization and the bank. This type of business-to-business relationship depends on mutual benefits for both the parties. Bank gets the whole memberships of the organization as their customer without much of investment in customer enhancement activities and the organization benefited by getting some initial signup fee and recurring money for every buying throug h credit cards. Finally the relationship between customer and organization depends on some intangible aspects such as loyalty, pride, brand using status etc. and a distinct identity. 2. As Cardweb.com (www.cardweb.com) estimated that 250 million affinity credit cards were in circulation worldwide and it is almost one-third of all credit cards. So affinity credit cards have larger share in the credit card market. If we see the reason behind the growth of affinity card market up to such level, the main reason behind this type of business is mutual benefits and trust. As we have discussed the three parties or stake holders involved in business get mutually benefited. The banks, which issue credit card, get a larger number of customers at one go. Services involving discrete transactions can be transformed into membership relationships by providing services in bulk. The advantage for the banks to provide services to the organizations of having membership relationships is that it knows who its current customers are and, usually, what use they make of the services offered. This customer information can be valuable for segmentation purposes if good records are kept and t he data are readily accessible for analysis. Banks after knowing the identities and addresses of