Bøger: You, Me and the Relationship Marketer

06-01-2010 10:47 The ambition to get a stronger customer focus is neither new nor original. Nonetheless The Relationship Marketer – Bridging Dyads is original in an ambitious and successful way.

Bedømmelse:




At the turn of the decade the network economy sweeps through business life and competition moves away from inter-firm rivalry to competition among value chains.

Therefore a clever move is to look in the direction of so called dyadic marketing management. Or at least that is Hougaard’s and Bjerre’s recipe for success.

The principle of twoness

In their new book we get introduced to the “dyad”, which is the principle of twoness or “you and me”.

The dyad is a central aspect of this follow up to the 2002 published Strategic Relationship Marketing. In general the book builds on insights from previous titles from Hougaard and Bjerre focusing on key account management, and Relations Marketing.

We are led through a journey of how strategic marketers could (and should!) focus on customer relationship and the benefits of mutuality.

Because, the argument is, in 2010 the supply chain is a vertical system. Hence relationship marketing is the art of initiating and maintaining profitable relationships, turning prospects into customers and customers into friends.

A new paradigm

It is an ambitious book – the authors offer a relationship approach to strategy which is both theoretically founded and which has the ambition of being applicable in real life situations.

According to Hougaard and Bjerre a new paradigm for marketing management rooted in relationships is gradually emerging.

From Kotlers four Ps (price, place, product and promotion) we are suggested to move to “the four Cs” which are expressions of what the four Ps mean to the customer:
The P for price is a C for cost in the consumers mind. Place is to be replaced with Convenience for the customer, Product with Customer needs and Promotion with Communication.

50 percent cost reductions

Unfortunately we only get introduced to a few good examples and best practices.

Maybe the best and most elaborated case is from the dyad between Skanska and Rockwool.

Some years ago Skanska and Rockwool entered into a cooperative contract replacing their traditional exchange-centric thinking with relationship market economics.

Skanska and Rockwool opened their books to each other to reduce transactions costs. This showed that it was possible to eliminate transactions costs amounting to no more than 50 percent (!) of the total price (Rockwool) and cost (Skanska).

These hidden costs were inventory costs, loading and unloading transportation, waste, loss, theft, delays of deliveries, broken deal costs and administration. In other words the driver behind these expenses was frictions not taken into consideration in a classical market contract.

A surprising high number

This is not only interesting but also a surprising high number! Hougaard and Bjerre should have spiced the book up with more best practices and more elaborated examples from real business life.

On the other hand – it is a by purpose a very theoretical book. Major parts of the book assume insights in marketing management and strategy models.

This narrows the target audience for The Relationship Marketer. But for graduates, and management consultants and marketing practitioners with an academic background the book is very recommendable.

4 stjerner af 6
Titel: The Relationship Marketer – Bridging Dyads
Forfattere: Søren Hougaard & Mogens Bjerre
Anden info: 2. Udgave, 212 sider
Forlag: Samfundslitteratur

Lars Ramme Nielsen er Cand.scient.pol og salgs- og marketingchef i Wonderful Copenhagen. Her arbejder han med at sælge og promovere København som destination for firmamøder, konferencer og technical visits. Lars er i bestyrelsen for foreningen Meetingdata og President Elect i Meetings Professional International (MPI).