Relationship Marketing- Pepsi Cola
Customers play the most important role in determining a company's success and for this reason, great amount of attention has always been paid to attracting new customers. But in recent times, a shift has occurred and instead of only attracting new customers, companies are trying to build programs to retain old customer. This has given rise to the CRM programs or relationship marketing strategies (Pearson, 1994). A customer gained is thus a consistent source of income found provided the company knows how to keep that customer coming back. In other words, firms are now beginning to realize that it is more important to retain customers than attracting new ones since it costs less to achieve the former. Attracting new customers is certainly important for enhance sales but what if a company keeps losing its old customers because of unsatisfactory service or quality. Relationship marketing is a new concept that focuses on building a lasting relationship with the customers instead of believing in 'old goes-new...
In other words, it can be defined as "a business strategy that proactively builds a bias or preference for an organization with respect to three audiences -- its individual employees, its channel partners, and its customers." (Gingrande, 2001) Relationship marketing therefore plays a huge role in customer retention and in building a life-long relationship with the customer. (Parker, 2001)
Most large companies today are aware of the importance of relationship marketing and no firm knows it better than Pepsi Cola Inc. The company whose products have become an integral part of our lives doesn't let complacency creep in and is therefore always on the look out for something that would make his customers feel important and turn them into loyal buyers forever. So how does Pepsi retain its customers or in other words what is the core idea behind its relationship marketing? Pepsi builds relationship with its customers by making becoming an important part of their lives. If we see Pepsi literally ruling the world of…
