UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
COURSE CODE
COURSE NAME
LECTURER
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BPMM 6033
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
DR ALIYU OLAYEMI ABDULLATEEF

SYNOPSIS

This course focuses on the customer-driven, market-based management practices that enable a business
to attract, satisfy, and retain customers profitably. Students will learn to properly use relational strategies to
more accurately evaluate the market place, evaluate competitors and their positioning, and determine the
lifetime value of the customer. The course will focus on techniques to track market conditions, market
performance, and competition and develop superior customer solutions via benchmarking, customer
analysis and value creation. Rather than using a traditional textbook, this course uses current articles and
cases that focus on relational marketing issues. Classroom focus is primarily on case analysis and
discussion.
Relationship marketing represents an important paradigm shift for marketing away from an acquisition
and transaction focus to retention and relationship focus. Relationship marketing is a philosophy of doing
business and a strategic orientation that focuses on keeping customers and improving customer
relationships rather than acquiring new customers. The rapid expansion of direct marketing, interactive
media and E-commerce has led to an increased focus on the development of programs designed to
cultivate customer relationships and brand and product loyalty.
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OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of the course, students are expected to:

To examine all elements in managing relationship with customers.

To compare and contrast different paradigms in managing customers.

To plan, analyze and execute decisions on relational strategies in marketing.

To discuss on various relational strategies in todays business

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to
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Demonstrate the link between marketing organizations and long term relationship with
customers through relationship marketing
Analyze a company's internal and external environment and present and long-term
direction, its resources and competitive capabilities for crafting relationship marketing
strategy
Identify characteristics and drivers of relationship marketing
Formulate relationship marketing programs based on MC. Kinseys 7 s
Monitoring and controlling relationship in organization for good strategy execution, and
build core competencies and competitive capabilities
Critique the chosen relationship marketing strategy in terms of its effectiveness,
suitability and competitiveness for a company to succeed in a challenging global
business environment.

REFERENCES
Ed Little & Ebi Marandi, (2005). Relationship Marketing Management. Thompson Publishing.
Egan, J. (2001). Relationship Marketing, Essex: Prentice Hall.
Ford, D., Gadde, L.E., Hakannsson, H. & Snehota, I. (2003). Managing Business Relationships. Wiley:
New Jersey.
Sheth, J.N. & Parvatiyar, A. (1993). Relationship marketing: Theory, methods and application, Atlanta,
G.A: Atlanta Center For Relationship Marketing.
Sheth, J.N. & Parvatiyar, A. (1995). The evolution of relationship marketing. International Business
Review, 4, 397-418.

Additional references supporting the course:

Kent, R. A. (1986). Faith in 4Ps: An alternative. Journal of Marketing management, 2,2, 145-154.
Brownlie, D & Saren, M. (1991). The 4Ps of the marketing concept: Prescriptive, polemical, permanent,
and problematical. European Journal of marketing, 26, 4, 34-47.
Barnes, J.G. (1994). Close to the customer. Journal of Marketing Management, 10, 561-570.
Evans, J.R. & Laskin, R.L. (1994). The relationship marketing process. Industrial Marketing
Management, 23, 4, 439-452.
Gronroos, C. (1997). From marketing mix to relationship marketing-towards a paradigm shift and
application. Industrial marketing management, 35, 4, 332-339.
Gummesson, E. (1994). Making relationship marketing operational, International Journal of service
industry management, 5, 5, 5-20.

Mattson, J. (1997). Beyond service quality in search of relationship values, Management Decision, 35,
4, 302-303.
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CONTENT

NO.

TOPIC

HOUR

1.0

Introduction
The current state of marketing
The criticism of traditional marketing
The inadequacy of the marketing mix framework of
marketing

2.0

Characteristics of marketing
Categorizing relationships
Conditions that are conducive to RM
The relationship continuum
Levels of RM
Benefits of RM
Disadvantage of RM

3.0

Antecedents of RM
The concept of satisfaction, trust and commitment
Relationship quality
Customer value
Loyalty
Commitment

4.0

The planning process of RM

The RM plan
The situation analysis
The relationship portfolio
Assessing customer potential
Planning objectives

5.0

Implementation of RM programs-strategy, system & structures

Strategy
Structures
Systems
Strategies for stage in relationship cycle

 The role of TQM in program implementation

6.0

Implementation of RM programs-shared values, staff, skills and

style

Internal marketing
Shared values and culture
Staff and internal service quality
Style
Skills

7.0

The process of monitoring and controlling in RM

Approaches to monitoring and control
Measures of relationship success
Complaints analysis and handling
Controlling service quality

8.0

Ethical considerations in RM
Ethical criticism of marketing in general
Consumerism and social responsibility
The role of ethics with specific reference to the
characteristics of RM

9.0

Key account management

What is KAM? Why it is popular
The key account development cycle
Identifying key accounts
Servicing key accounts
The relevance of KAM to RM

10

10.0

Customer relationship management

Definition
Criticism to CRM
How does CRM work
The strategic approach to CRM

TOTAL

TEACHING METHOD
Lectures, case study, discussion and presentation.

ASSESSMENT
Coursework
Final exam

60% (group and individual)

40% (individual)

Total

100%

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