As several retail markets have reached maturity, are over-stored, and have difficulties differentiating themselves based on merchandise selection only, retailer and more than ever obliged to continually seek out products, processes, and technologies t...
As several retail markets have reached maturity, are over-stored, and have difficulties differentiating themselves based on merchandise selection only, retailer and more than ever obliged to continually seek out products, processes, and technologies that increase customer value.
However, retailers generally have little Knowledge on the types of value drivers. Especially research pertaining to relationship marketing in consumer markets has advanced little. In general, marketing literature
focused at product and service efforts as drivers of total consumer value to the neglect of relationship efforts.
Nevertheless, some researchers recognize the importance of relationship-specific value components. This study defines and operationalizes four types of relationship efforts and empirically validates their impact on consumer' trust, relationship commitment, and behavioral loyalty, intention to keep relationship, word of mouth intention.
The objectives of this study are as follows:
First, it is objective to assist the researches for the relationship marketing in the domestic consumer markets. Second, it is objective to emphasize the importance of relationship efforts of department store as a large-scale retailer and to suggest four types of relationship efforts - direct mail, preferential treatment, tangible rewards, and cooperative intention. Third, it is objective to investigate the potential role of a retailer's relationship efforts in influencing consumer attitudes and behavior and demonstrate the effects of relationship efforts on trust in a retail setting.
To accomplish the objectives of this study, theoretical and practical researches are carried out. In theoretical research, relationship marketing, detail types of relationship efforts, trust, relationship commitment, and factors affected the expectation performance are studies and developed. By using a result of this theoretical research, hypothesized model composed of five hypothesis is developed.
As a data analysis method, frequency analysis to suggest the characteristics of popular statistics and data, factor analysis to evaluated the validity and credibility of measurement value of four types of relationship efforts, trust, relationship commitment, and result variables(word of mouth intention, intention to keep relationship, and behavioral loyalty), reliability analysis, and regression analysis are performed. As a result of above statical analysis, five hypotheses of the model are adopted.
The results of study are as follows:
First, while this study did not incorporate product or service efforts, it indicates that relationship efforts are important driver of customer value. Second, this study suggests that customer loyalty strategies can be built based on these relationship efforts. Consequently, managers and employees of retail companies should be well trained, motivated, and rewarded for making relationship efforts to regular customers. Third, several researchers warn that tangible rewards generally do not lead to sustainable competitive advantages. They refer to the reality that price is the most easily imitated element of the marketing mix, that some customers may react opportunistically, and that already-loyal customers can be 'unnecessarily' rewarded. Nevertheless, the author and some previous researchers including O'Brien and Jones advocate that rewarding strategies can lead to sustainable competitive advantages if such strategies are no short-term promotional give-aways, but planned and implemented parts of a larger loyalty management strategy. This study provides strong empirical supports for the potential competitive advantages resulting from the practice of rewarding consumers for their patronage.