Application of relationship marketing and management: a large contractor case study

Abstract

Marketing‐led enterprise change management initiated by a major UK contractor is explored in this paper as a contrast to procurement‐led changes to projects driven by clients. Procurement‐led initiatives try to induce changes to behaviour through market governance. Relationship marketing and management proactively change organizational behaviour, the enterprise taking responsibility for its own destiny. Investment and resource allocation, and organizational behaviour have posed constraints, particularly concerning service continuity in construction. Overcoming these constraints offers opportunities for delivering service improvements and adding value for clients and yielding further increases in repeat business and increasing profitability. Relationship marketing is the conceptual starting point, application developing into relationship management in line with theory. The main relationship marketing tenets are outlined. In the case explored key account management (KAM) principles are adopted as the conceptual point of departure for introducing relationship marketing processes. Adoption resulted in some minor restructuring and provided the basis for a series of process changes. Application is producing early results in terms of increased client satisfaction, consequential repeat business, inducing greater cross‐functional communication and collaboration within the firm resulting in cross‐selling opportunities between market segments. Some repeat business is producing higher margins in response to meeting demands of the clients.

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