Relationship marketing has been looked at from different angles and perspectives in various researches. Now, as the basics of marketing 4P suggests, place (distribution or supply) is an important variable in marketing mix. So it should have impact on relationship marketing also. This paper tries to come to some conclusions on the impact of supply chain on the relationship building process, by looking at the literature on relationships. The authors looked at supply chain from the point of view of suppliers to companies manufacturing products or services, and also as suppliers of products to customers, as the idea was to analyze the effect of supply function on relationship building and long-term relationship maintenance. The paper discusses diverse issues such as variables of relationship, the impact of suppliers on the business, and applications of supply chain in different business situations.
The evolution of relational marketing concept has been a fascinating journey of research work, with contributions from many researchers. It has its wings spread out in different directions of management. It is not just about customers or suppliers or partners, etc. It is difficult to comprehend all those branches which the concept touches in one place. So we have tried to look at the contribution of supply chain operations (both supplier to company and supplier of products from company to customers) towards effective and long-lasting relationships. We start with the definition given by Sheth and Parvatiyar (2001):
"Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a comprehensive strategy and process of acquiring, retaining and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customer. It involves integration of marketing, sales, customer service and supply chain functions of the organization to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness in delivering customer value."
Christopher (1996) talked about relationship in the light of delivering value to customers; but according to him, it can be said that customers are not just consumers, they have goals which they seek to achieve, and the role of the supplier is to help customers achieve those goals. So supplier has a crucial part to play in delivering customer value. In fact, companies, to develop long-term relationships and sustained business success, must have some competitive advantage in the operations. Operational excellence cannot be achieved without significant contribution of supply chain. Marketing advantage is garnered through effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) and supplier development: quick response and supplies at low cost from suppliers help are necessary in delivering greater value to customers (Christopher, 1996). Costs and inefficiencies are always high if the organizations work independently of its suppliers (Houlihan, 1985). As the concept of networked organization is gaining prominence in the business, the concept of supply chain integration working as a source of competitive advantage will gain importance with the growth of time-based competition (Stalk and Hout, 1990). In fact, one of the oldest viewpoints of relationship marketing has talked about getting the goods from producers to consumers as most important function (Alderson and Cox, 1948), which boils down to supply chain effectively functioning at the backstage. Even if we talk about the concept of 4Ps (price, product, promotion and place) in marketing, one of the Ps is place (distribution), which shows that supply chain or distribution is an extremely crucial part of marketing and marketing helps to build relationships. |
