Relationship Marketing $($RM$)$ represents a paradigm shift from traditional marketing strategies to a more long$-$term relationship$-$oriented marketing strategy. It concentrates efforts on massaging and enhancing customer and employee relationships. It requires buy$-$in from everyone in the company to $$know the customer$$ and to ensure that customers trust the company$$s intentions and feel a part of the $$family$.$ This strategy can be costly to implement since it does require that systems within an organization are integrated so that customer value is clearly understood $($i$.$e$.,$ the number of relationships or the number of products$/$services of yours a customer may have$).$ Data mining is a key component of RM strategy. In today$$s competitive environment, it is important that companies concentrate on retaining existing customers and growing their loyalty base for greater profitability.

Answer all of the following questions:

Why is it more important to keep existing customers happy $($satisfied$)$ and loyal $($returning$)$ than it is to generate new customers?

As a marketing manager introducing a new product to your target market, talk to at least two tenets of Relationship Marketing that you would employ and why they are so important to the success of your implementation.

Use the suggested readings in this module as a basis for understanding Relationship Marketing.