Marketing as promise management: regaining customer management for marketing

Purpose – In today's competitive markets where market offerings are far more complicated and customer interfaces are far broader than conventional marketing models assume, marketing has become increasingly tactical and lost control of the customer management process. The purpose of this paper is to develop a promise management‐based approach to marketing with the goal of regaining customer management for marketing.Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of a conceptual analysisFindings – According to the promise management approach marketing is viewed as a process of enabling and making promises as well as keeping promises in order to meet expectations created by promises made. Value creation in customer processes is considered the goal for marketing. It is claimed that by taking this view marketing can once again take full responsibility for customer management.Research limitations/implications – The paper establishes a foundation for studying marketing as a process in situations where ...

[1]  R. B. Woodruff,et al.  Know Your Customer: New Approaches to Understanding Customer Value and Satisfaction , 1996 .

[2]  Christopher Lovelock.  Functional Integration in Services: Understanding the Links between Marketing, Operations, and Human Resources , 2000 .

[3]  C. Grönroos.  Value‐driven relational marketing: From products to resources and competencies , 1997 .

[4]  Christian Grönroos,et al.  Adopting a service logic in manufacturing: Conceptual foundation and metrics for mutual value creation , 2010 .

[5]  David F Ballantyne,et al.  A relationship‐mediated theory of internal marketing , 2003 .

[6]  E. Gummesson.  Marketing‐orientation Revisited: The Crucial Role of the Part‐time Marketer , 1991 .

[7]  Richard A. Normann,et al.  Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape , 2001 .

[8]  L. Berry.  Relationship marketing of services—growing interest, emerging perspectives , 1995 .

[9]  Christian Kowalkowski,et al.  What does a service-dominant logic really mean for manufacturing firms? , 2012 .

[10]  George S. Day,et al.  Charting New Directions for Marketing , 1999 .

[11]  Marketing Organisation: An Analysis of Information Processing, Power and Politics , 1985 .

[12]  K. B. Monroe.  Pricing: Making Profitable Decisions , 1990 .

[13]  R. Kent,et al.  Faith in four Ps: An alternative , 1986 .

[14]  Andreas Eggert,et al.  Value creation in the relationship life cycle: A quasi-longitudinal analysis , 2006 .

[15]  R. Normann,et al.  From value chain to value constellation: designing interactive strategy. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[16]  Christian Grönroos,et al.  Relationship Marketing: Challenges for the Organization , 1999 .

[17]  Robert E. Spekman.  International marketing and purchasing of industrial goods: IMP Group, ed. Håkon Håkansson Wiley, Chichester (England), 1982 , 1984 .

[18]  C. Grönroos.  Service logic revisited: who creates value? And who co‐creates? , 2008 .

[19]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Marketing Strategies and Organizational Structures for Service Firms , 1981 .

[20]  Wroe Alderson,et al.  Marketing behavior and executive action : a functionalist approach to marketing theory , 1957 .

[21]  Henrik Calonius.  Contemporary Research in Marketing: A Market Behaviour Framework , 2006 .

[22]  J. Sheth,et al.  Implications of the Revised Definition of Marketing: From Exchange to Value Creation , 2007 .

[23]  T. Levitt.  Marketing Intangible Products and Product Intangibles , 1981 .

[24]  C. Grönroos.  Service Management and Marketing: A Customer Relationship Management Approach , 2000 .

[25]  C. Grönroos,et al.  The value concept and relationship marketing , 1996 .

[26]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution , 2008 .

[27]  Donald F. Dixon,et al.  Marketing as Production: The Development of a Concept: , 1990 .

[28]  J. Sheth,et al.  The evolution of relationship marketing , 1995 .

[29]  Mandeep Singh,et al.  Marketing Renaissance: Opportunities and Imperatives for Improving Marketing Thought, Practice, and Infrastructure , 2005 .

[30]  M. Harker,et al.  The Past, Present and Future of Relationship Marketing , 2006 .

[31]  T. Levitt,et al.  The Marketing Imagination , 1983 .

[32]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing , 2004 .

[33]  H. Håkansson,et al.  Developing relationships in business networks , 1995 .

[34]  Solveig Wikström.  Value creation by company‐consumer interaction , 1996 .

[35]  F. Webster.  The Changing Role of Marketing in the Corporation , 1992 .

[36]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value With Customers , 2004 .

[37]  Shankar Ganesan,et al.  The decline and dispersion of marketing competence , 2005 .

[38]  Sandra Vandermerwe,et al.  Becoming a customer “owning” corporation , 1996 .

[39]  David Court,et al.  Bringing customers into the boardroom. , 2004, Harvard business review.

[40]  Evert Gummesson,et al.  Total Relationship Marketing , 1999 .

[41]  Jukka Ojasalo,et al.  Managing customer expectations in professional services , 2001 .

[42]  Christian Grönroos,et al.  On defining marketing: finding a new roadmap for marketing , 2006 .

[43]  U. Juettner,et al.  Relationship Marketing from a Value System Perspective , 1994 .

[44]  J. Barnes,et al.  Internal Marketing: a relationships and value-creation view , 2000 .

[45]  Roland T. Rust,et al.  Service Quality: New Directions in Theory and Practice , 1993 .

[46]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Building service relationships: It’s all about promises , 1995 .

[47]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  Communication and Control Processes in the Delivery of Service Quality , 1988, Journal of Marketing.

[48]  Michael Harker,et al.  Relationship marketing defined? An examination of current relationship marketing definitions , 1999 .

[49]  M. Holbrook.  The Nature of Customer Value: An Axiology of Services in the Consumption Experience , 1994 .

[50]  E. Gummesson.  Customer centricity: reality or a wild goose chase? , 2008 .

[51]  R. Rust,et al.  Service Quality: Insights and Managerial Implications from the Frontier , 1994 .