Proceedings of 20th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2013, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-22-1
Unearthing the Scope of Relationship Marketing in the Business
Market: A Focus on the Paper Printing Industry in Mauritius
Vanisha Oogarah–Hanuman and Taruna Devi Ramnarain
Commercial paper-printers in Mauritius have, for long, basked in the bliss on serving
a lucrative business-market with few players on the market. However, with the
economic and socio-infrastructural development that the country has witnessed, the
corporate landscape has drastically changed. Competition and Fair Trade Acts have
eased the path of entry for new entrants to serve the market. As such, commercial
paper-printers are currently facing dire competition which is fuelled by customer
fickle-mindedness and impulsive readiness to switch from one company to another.
This has edged marketers in the industry to ponder upon relational strategies which
could be adopted to build and sustain long-term working relationships with their
stakeholders and most importantly their customers.
This study is an attempt at exploring if this is really a practice at local paper -printers
and what views of relational marketing philosophy do marketers of paper -printing
firms hold about it and the scope of applying Relationship Marketing in the local
commercial paper-printing industry. The undertakings of this venture have gone
through the exploration of underlying principles purporting Relationship Marketing as
the appropriate device for the success of paper-printers. Hence, it presents an
overview of the current circumstances pertaining to marketing in the commercial
paper-printing industry in Mauritius and probe into marketing and relational
marketing practices that are heralded by the firms in the industry. Overall, this paper
presents the findings of the research with a fair view of the state -of-affairs in the
industry and suggests additional and corrective measures that local commercial
paper-printers can adopt. It also provides a basis upon which other extensive and
more constructive research can be made.
1.0
Introduction
Today’s business environment is frenzied by cut-throat competition fuelled by cataclysmic
changes in which corporate organisations are experiencing difficulties in sustaining long-term
working relationships with many of their stakeholders, particularly business associates and
most importantly customers. Relationship Marketing (RM) as a practical marketing concept has
been developed with the intent of seeking to build, nurture and uphold long-term working
relationships with customers. Customers are the very basis of the existence of businesses, as
if it were not for them, corporate organizations would not be raking in profits and would cease
to exist. With respect to this undeniable fact, customer relationships are of priceless value to
businesses; consequently, it is in the best interest of a company that it should have a
customer-focused orientation and should work at establishing good relationships with all
stakeholders – especially customers – so as to deliver service excellence to gain an upperhand on competitors. This chapter seeks to explore the emergence of RM, delve into the
underlying aspects of the concept, probe into related concepts which have come to be
______________________________
Mrs Vanisha Oogarah–Hanuman, Lecturer, Department of Management, Faculty of Law and management,
v.hanuman@uom.ac.mu
Taruna Devi Ramnarain, Student MSc Marketing Management at University of Mauritius, sinitax@yahoo.com
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Proceedings of 20th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2013, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-22-1
inextricably linked with it and highlight the plausible reasons of subversive criticisms against
RM touting it as yet another marketing fad.
2.0
Literature Review
According to marketing literature, the origins of relationship marketing can be tracked down to
a text by Schneider (1980) in which he comments: “What is surprising is that researchers and
businessmen have concentrated far more on how to attract customers to products and
services than on how to retain customers.” Preliminary research in services marketing by
Gronröös (1982) defined the phenomenon as “interactive marketing” while in the following
year, Berry (1983) coined the term “relationship marketing”.
Joining the relationship marketing bandwagon was Levitt who, in his aspiration to widen the
scope of marketing well above individual transactions, conceived an elaborate explanation of
the theory in his article “After the sale is over” (Levitt, 1983):
“As our economy becomes more service and technology oriented, the dynamics of the sales
process will change. The on-going nature of services and the growing complexity of technology
will increasingly necessitate lengthy and involved relationships between buyers and sellers.
Thus, the seller’s focus will need to shift from simply landing sales to ensuring buyer
satisfaction after the purchase. To keep buyers happy, vendors must maintain constructive
interaction with purchasers – which includes keeping up on their complaints and future needs.
Repeat orders will go to those sellers who have done the best job or nurturing these
relationships…”
However, “RM is not an easy concept to define in a form which is acceptable to even a
majority of ‘relational marketers’ despite the considerable academic research and practitioner
interest” (Egan, 2001). RM can be said to be an ‘umbrella philosophy’ encompassing a wide
array of relational variations rather than a single concept; thereby creating a kind of confusion
as many other terms have been generally used either as alternates for relationship marketing
or to express similar relational concepts (Buttle, 1996). Tapp (1998) discusses that such
definitions include – but are not limited to – direct marketing, database marketing, customer
relationship management, data-driven marketing, micromarketing, one-to-one marketing,
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Proceedings of 20th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2013, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-22-1
loyalty (loyalty-based) marketing, ‘segment-of-one’ marketing, wraparound marketing,
customer partnering, symbiotic marketing, individual marketing, relevance marketing, bonding,
frequency marketing, integrated marketing, dialogue marketing and interactive marketing.
The phenomenon of RM in business-markets
“No business is an island” (Håkansson and Snehota, 1995) - a statement by B2B (business-tobusiness) researchers - alludes to John Donne’s (1572-1631) poem “No man is an island,
entire of itself…” This echoes the notion of relationships and networks in businesses as
Castells (1996) states “Networks are the fundamental stuff of which new organizations are and
will be made”.
This stream of research was initiated by Adler (1966) when he introduced the concept of
symbiotic marketing. This view acknowledges that improving marketing efficiency and
effectiveness is very much a function of resource-sharing between organisations (through
licensing, franchising, joint venture etc.) in the supply chain (Ganguli et al., 2009). The concept
of symbiotic marketing was further extended Arndt (1979) when he introduced the idea of
domesticated markets where he emphasized long-term relationships not only with the
suppliers or other companies but also with the key customers.
Then, the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) group emerged and led to a series of
systematic research efforts in industrial markets (B2B) markets (Ganguli et al., 2009). The
underlying premise of this research stream is that as buyers and sellers gain experience in
working with each other and learn to adapt to each other’s working styles, their commitment to
one another increases over time (Ford, 1980; Andersson and Söderlund, 1988).
RM as a relational exchange
Varadarajan and Rajaratnam (1986) developed Adler’s (1966) concept of symbiotic marketing
and underscored that partnerships among firms in the supply chain is an ideal way to achieve
firm’s growth objectives in uncertain economic conditions and changing consumer preferences.
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Proceedings of 20th International Business Research Conference
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While Heide and John (1992) explored the importance of norms (supportive, relational or
control-based) in structuring economically-efficient relationships between firms; Wilson (1995)
proposed an integrated model of buyer-seller relationships in B2B context by integrating
relationship variables (commitment, trust, cooperation, adaptation, interdependence, bonds
etc.) with the process variables (from partner selection to relationship maintenance). This
highlights that there is a cooperation which facilitates inter-organizational exchanges in more
important than monetary terms which and are integral to the formation and maintenance of
relationships (Varadarajan and Cunningham, 1995; Håkansson, 1982).
The main tenets of RM
Customer Focus
According to Möller and Halinen (2000), the customer-supplier relationship is very much a core
issue in RM and undeniably across the whole marketing discipline. Christopher et al. (1991,
p.21), while embracing the concept ‘broadened view of marketing’, staunchly affirm that
‘customer markets’ should remain the primary focus and, as such, they place them at the heart
of their six-markets model of RM.
Figure 2.2 The six-markets model
(Source: Adapted from Christopher et al., 1991, p.21)
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As Worthington and Horne (1998) assert that RM’s focus is not on what a company can do to
its customer but rather on what it can do for its customer; Egan (2001) adds another focus
which is ‘what the company do with its customer to ensure customer satisfaction’. This change
of emphasis is not ‘wholly altruistic’ as ‘company prosperity is still the long-term aim’; however,
it is perceived that focusing on a customer’s actual needs rather than the ‘agglomerated
marketplace’ can better help a company in achieving this aim (Egan, 2001). The intensive
customer-focus motivation might be driven by the fact that the balance of power has shifted
from the producer to the customer and today’s buyers are more-than-ever ‘worldly-wise’,
informed and empowered; hence, it pays to play the field (Mitchell, 1997).
The rationale of trust and commitment theory in RM
Trust
RM seeks to build long-term relationships, trust being a “key mediating variable” (Morgan and
Hunt, 1994), or a “necessary ingredient” (Ganesan, 1994) for developing successful
relationships; contributes to success of business-relationships (Ganesan, 1994; Wilson, 1995;
Srinivasan, 2004). While Berry (1995) suggests that “relationship marketing is built on the
foundation of trust”; Blois (1999) links the construct of trust with RM in the context of B2B
markets. Parasuraman et al. (1985) introduced trust as a critical success factor in successful
service relationships; customers need to feel safe in their dealings with suppliers and need
assurance that their interaction is confidential in that they are able to trust their suppliers. Trust
in business, according to Morgan and Hunt (1994), exists when “one party has confidence in
an exchange partner’s reliability and integrity.” Conversely, Anderson and Narus (1990) define
it as:
“[. . .] the firm’s belief that another company will perform actions that will result in positive
outcomes for the firm, as well as not take unexpected actions that would result in negative
outcomes for the firm.”
In relation to B2B customer-loyalty, Reichheld and Schefter (2000) highlight the importance of
trust in that “to gain loyalty of customers, you must first gain trust”. Similarly, Delgado-Ballester
and Munuera-Aleman (2001) used customer-commitment as an indicator of customer loyalty to
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Proceedings of 20th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2013, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-22-1
empirically prove that brand trust has a direct effect on customer-commitment and
consequently indirectly can affect the level of price tolerance.
Commitment
Originating from industrial and organizational psychology, the concept of commitment Fehr
(1988); it relates to the belief by a partner that the relationship is so important as to warrant
maximum efforts at maintaining it (Moorman et al., 1992; Gil-Saura et al., 2009). While
Garbarino and Johnson (1999) and Pritchard et al. (1999) regard commitment as the central
construct in RM, Morgan and Hunt (1994) and Palmatier et al. (2007) pairs it with trust to
define a key mediating variable for RM. It has also been perceived as an important dimension
of relationship quality (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002) and successful relationships (Morgan and
Hunt, 1994). The buyer-and-seller relationship literature defines commitment as an implicit or
explicit pledge of relational continuity between exchange-partners (Dwyer et al., 1987);
implying a motivation to stay with a supplier (Moorman et al., 1992; Wetzels et al., 1998).
Customer Satisfaction in business relationships
Christopher et al. (1991) construed that “Marketing is concerned with exchange relationships
between the organisation and its customers and quality and customer service are key linkages
in this relationship”.
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Figure: Linkages between marketing, customer service and quality
(Source: Adapted from Christopher et al., 1991, p.3)
This view of aligning all three elements – emphasizing on customer service and quality – for a
more synchronised system in the process of building relationships with customers, places
customer service in a much broader context as a multi-dimensional issue with an impact on
relationships with specific target groups across a broad range of a company’s activities and
profitability (Christopher et al., 1991; Storbacka et al., 1994; Buttle, 1996; Clark, 2000). It also
crucial to highlight that service quality in B2B markets, especially with regards to
manufacturing firms, takes another dimension. “Continued efforts of marketing, which is
concerned with the activities leading to the transaction, and logistics, which addresses the
physical movement and storage of goods and services contribute to improved understanding
of their roles and boundaries over customer service activities” (Harris and Stock 1985).
Likewise, Rinehart et al. (1989) sustains that implementing an integrated marketing system
positive affects the production and logistics functions, which further impacts on customer
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Proceedings of 20th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2013, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-22-1
service quality across the whole supply-chain channel. Moreover, service quality has been
reported as having apparent relationship to costs profitability and ROI (Sheth and Sisodia,
1999), customer satisfaction (Bolton and Drew, 1991), customer retention (Reichheld and
Sasser, 1990), behavioural intention and positive word-of-mouth (Sachdev and Verma, 2004).
Service quality and customer satisfaction
Service quality is characterised by “the degree and direction of discrepancy between
customers' perceptions and expectations” (Oliver, 1980; Shostack, 1984; Parasuraman et al.,
1988; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Lewis, 1993) and customer judgment about the overall
excellence or superiority of a product/service (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996).
The quality of customer service definitely impacts on customer satisfaction and the likelihood
of the customer continuing business with the company (loyalty) (Parasuraman et al., 1985;
Johnston et al., 1990; Johnston and Silvestro, 1990; Gronroos, 1990; Bolton and Drew,
1991;Johnston, 1995).
The power of cooperation in business relationships: Customisation and Collaborative
Design
“In business markets, almost every customer needs a customised product, quantity or price. In
fact each segment effectively consists of one customer” (Narayan, 2005). The fact that the
commercial arena of business markets has been regarded more of collaborative and
cooperative network (Håkansson, 1982; Dwyer et al., 1987; Christopher et al., 1991; Wilson,
1995; Varadarajan and Cunningham, 1995; Egan, 2001) rather than one-off dealings has
already been discussed above. Nevertheless, it is worth remarking that the underpinning of
this phenomenon is very much credited to the inherent makeup of business markets (Webster,
1984; Reeder et al., 1987; Halinen, 1994; Gordon, 1998; Krishnamacharyulu and Lalitha,
2006; Hunt, Arnett and Madhavaram; 2006; Rese, 2006). The ostensible partnership between
supplier-buyer is perceived as complementary (Sheth and Sisodia, 1999) and the contractual
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collaboration between firms have been formally acknowledged in terms of business
relationships/partnerships (Blois, 1998; Gummesson, 1999; Varey, 2002).
RM and Customer loyalty in B2B markets
Gremler and Brown (1996) define loyalty as “[. . .] the degree to which a customer exhibits
repeat purchasing behavior from a service provider, possesses a positive attitudinal disposition
toward the provider, and considers using only this provider when a need for this service
arises.” Customer loyalty, having been equated with the “sine qua non of an effective business
strategy” (Heskett, 2002), has a powerful impact on firms' performance and is considered to be
an important source of competitive advantage (Heskett et al., 1997; Rust et al., 2000). The
magnitude of loyalty in B2B context has been stressed on by Lam et al. (2004) because of the
outcomes it engenders; for example, increased revenue, reduced customer acquisition costs,
and lower costs of serving repeat purchasers, leading to greater profitability (Reichheld and
Sasser, 1990; Reichheld, 1993; Ganesan, 1994; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Doney and Cannon,
1997).
In the B2B context, evidence shows that relationship elements affect customer loyalty; for
example, Ricard and Perrien (1999) found that relationship practices have a direct impact on
customer loyalty while Berry and Parasuraman (1991) and Czepiel (1990) provide propositions
that building relationships with customers increases loyalty, favorable word-of-mouth
communication, and repeat purchases. While authors such as Chow and Holden (1997),
Money (2004), Eriksson and Vaghult (2000), Boles et al. (1997), Lam et al. (2004), Bennett et
al. (2005) and Gounaris (2005) provide empirical evidence linking several variables such as
relationship quality, trust, involvement, satisfaction, purchase development, organisational
change, and switching costs to influence B2B customer loyalty and retention; Jarvis and
Wilcox (1977) suggest that B2B loyalty arises as a result of perceived risks [of venturing with
unknown companies] and absence of choice in the business market. Contrarily, Pritchard et al.
(1999) suggests that resistance to change (commitment) also may result into staying with the
same supplier and terms it as another factor of loyalty.
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Return on Relationships (ROR)
As discussed previously, relationship marketing conceptually provides the basis to create a
customer-focused orientation (Mitchell, 1997; Worthington and Horne, 1998; Egan, 2001;
Möller and Halinen, 2000), establish a cooperative network with all stakeholders (Christopher
et al. (1991; 1994), Kotler (1992), Millman (1993), Morgan and Hunt (1994), Doyle (1995),
Peck (1996), Buttle (1996) and Gummesson (1996), build long-term customer relationships
(Dwyer et al., 1987), focus on customer retention (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990), instill trust
and commitment in the relationship (Parasuraman et al.,1985; Morgan and Hunt, 1994), deliver
superior service quality (Christopher et al, 1991; Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996), enhance
customer satisfaction (Bolton and Drew, 1991), allow scope for customer-partnering (Egan,
2001; Sheth and Sisodia, 1999), foster loyalty (Heskett, 2002), encourage behavioural
intention and positive word-of-mouth referral (Sachdev and Verma, 2004), reduce costs, and
finally, increase profitability and ROI (Sheth and Sisodia, 1999).
Employees’ role in RM as the full-time marketers
To implement successfully RM-based strategies, managers should identify and satisfy the
wants and needs of employees (Hunt et al., 2006); implying an internal market orientation
(Lings, 2004) to increase internal aspects of performance (e.g. employee satisfaction and
employee commitment), which, in turn, impacts positively both the firm’s external market
orientation and external aspects of performance (e.g. customer satisfaction and profit). As
such, the internal marketing explanation of RM-based strategy success urges marketers to
ensure that all employees of the firm participate in developing the intra-firm relationships that
promote relationship marketing success (Hunt et al., 2006).
CRM – RM’s better-half
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has often been used interchangeably with RM
(Vavra, 1992; Buttle, 1996, Tapp, 1998; Egan, 2001). It is, however, important to remark that
CRM emerged a decade after the conceptualisation of RM; at the dawn of the millennium,
CRM was the resounding catchphrase (Storbacka and Lehtinen, 2000). Drawing from this fact,
Gummesson (2002) suggest this definition:
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“CRM is the values and strategies of relationship marketing – with particular emphasis on
customer relationships – turned into practical application.”
The dark side of RM
“There is a tendency when new ideas in management emerge to embrace them keenly for a
while and to see them as the ultimate solution to whatever problems we currently perceive to
exist. Equally there is a tendency to put them aside after the initial novelty has worn off, and
they are found to be not quite the panacea that we once thought. Marketing particularly has
been prone to this ‘flavour of month’ syndrome…Already there are some who would claim that
‘relationship marketing’ is another of these short-lifecycle management phenomena.”
Brennan (1997) also shares this view and asserts that RM has been treated like the common
fashionable management expressions and has undergone a devaluation due to over-use and
abuse. The confines of RM have been stretched to accommodate many fallacious claims in an
endeavour to portray it as the master-key to all problems (Blois, 1997; Egan 2001). This has
obvious raised the question: ‘Is RM a fad?’ like other managerial concepts.
What is also questionable now is how far is RM a new marketing concept? Many authors have,
unabashedly, touted RM as ‘old wine in a new bottle’; ‘old idea in new clothes (Palmer, 1998).
Cynics warrants that RM is merely a change of name as the philosophy in essence existed
since long back (Brown, 1998) but a new interest in it has stirred up the marketing fraternity
(Gummesson, 1999).
Moreover, it has also been observed that RM has been given a universal appeal so as to be
effortlessly adapted on marketers’ whims and fancies (Mitchell, 1997).
3.0
Methodology
The growing competition in the commercial paper-printing industry has given a new dimension
to the way business marketers in the field operate. Finding out if marketers are using
relationship marketing in the commercial paper-printing industry in Mauritius and how they are
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applying the concept for the business market that they are serving is crucial to evaluate the
quality of service dispensed.
Research Objectives:
(i).
Assess the marketers’ perception regarding Relationship Marketing as a tool to build
and ustain long-term relationship with customers in the commercial paper-printing
industry
(ii).
Assess the marketers’ perspective regarding Relationship Marketing as a device to
work on service excellence in view of fostering and retaining customer loyalty in the
commercial paper-printing industry
Initially, a list of commercial paper-printers in Mauritius was retrieved from the Central
Statistical Office and the number being relatively small (only 36), it was deemed appropriate to
use the probability sampling technique, the census. In the first phase, all printing-firms were
contacted via telephone to confirm the company’s name and trading business and solicit their
participation for the survey. It is important to note that out of the 36 companies categorised as
commercial paper-printing firms in Mauritius, 3 were found to be in other types of printing
activities. This resulted into a list of 33 companies dealing into paper-printing on the B2B
market.
In the second phase of the survey administration, an online medium - using the synchronous
web-based survey - since marketing managers are very busy persons who are difficult to
access for personal interviews. Moreover, self-administered questionnaires in booklet-form
have not garnered encouraging responses. Each paper-printer marketer was called up to
personally solicit their participation in the survey. Their e-mail addresses were carefully
recorded and an invitation with the survey link was e-mailed to them.
Hence, an online interface for the questionnaire was designed using www.esurveyspro.com’s
survey
services;
thereby
generating
a
distinct
link
for
the
http://www.eSurveysPro.com/Survey.aspx?id=80f09ceb-41a6-4e9a-af51-6d391f571b7c
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survey:
Proceedings of 20th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2013, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-22-1
The survey was sent through email to the respondents and personal follow-ups via telephone
ensured 33 successful clicks but only 26 complete responses; which is, nonetheless, a very
positive response rate.
Source: http://www.esurveyspro.com/SurveyResults.aspx?surveyId=91600
Figure 4.3: Survey Report – Marketer Survey
Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Complex
Script Font: 12 pt, French (France)
4.0
Empirical Findings and Discussion
Demographic profile of respondents
Demographic
Variables
Percentage
(%)
Number of
Employees
1 – 50
51 – 150
151 – 300
301 – 500
1000+
53.8
30.8
3.8
7.7
3.8
Annual Turnover
(Rs. m)
Less than 100
101 – 500
501 – 1000
Confidential
50.0
34.6
3.8
11.5
Number of Years in
Business
1 – 10
11 – 20
21 – 30
Over 30
40.0
24.0
28.0
8.0
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Markets that the
company serves
European
United States
African
Asian
Rest of the World
No foreign market
Affiliation
Local
Foreign
Joint Venture
0
3.8
19.2
0
15.4
61.5
73
12
15
The survey carried out primarily assessed the knowledge of marketers in the local commercial
paper-printing industry on the concept of RM and their perspective on it as a marketing
philosophy. Moreover, the study sought to include the current marketing practices of these
firms to give a better insight on the extent to which there is future scope for the application of
RM in the industry.
On a general level, 69.2 % of the responding companies acknowledged having a mission
statement while 30.8% did not have a mission statement and out of the firms having a mission
statement, a great majority of 88.9% claims to have a focus on the significance of stakeholder
and/or customer relationship as business success factor.
Companies, especially manufacturing, have often relegated marketing as a core function;
overlooking its crucial role in the organisation. When asked if they have a distinct marketing
unit in the company, 65.4% of the 26 respondents affirm having a fully-established marketing
unit while 34.6% do not. When asked about the marketing orientation adopted by their
company, 57.7% of responding firms state that they adopt a customer-focus regarding
customisation as cornerstone, 26.9% affirm that they are geared towards customer-base
expansion while 7.7% say that they focus exclusively on selling customer-privileged products
and 7.7% assert that they have an aggressively competitive marketing attitude.
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The next section of the survey was intended to gain marketers’ opinion of the factors which are
important for a customer-oriented business process. The mean of all customer-oriented
business process factors range was of 4.070, implying that the variables have a central
tendency towards important to very important. Hence, it can be inferred that paper-printers do
reckon the fact that these constructs are important to have customer-centric operations.
Complaint-management and service recovery being two important aspects of business
transactions which greatly affect the customer-supplier relationship, this study has tested This
study reveals that the grand majority of 62% of paper-printers do not have an established
complaint-management unit designed with proper procedures and processes; only 38% affirm
having such a system. However, as far as service recovery is concerned, a majority 65% of
these firms acknowledge offering some sort of service recovery in cases of service failures to
redeem themselves while 35% do not bother to do so.
It should be noted that most paper-printers (42.3%) think that complaint-management provides
a positive interface which can be constructively used to improve their system while 26.9% see
it as a way of avoiding unsatisfied customers spread negative WOM. However, 19.2% of firms
view it as a negative thing which should be used as rarely as possible and 11.5% believe it is a
fall-back option for cases gone wrong.
It is significant to know if the business philosophy of local paper-printers account for customer
satisfaction and the survey shows that 69% of the firms do have corporate values and aims
which contribute to achieve customer satisfaction while 31% negatively differ from this view.
Customer satisfaction being inextricably linked with customer loyalty, the firms were asked if
they had some sort of loyalty programmes to foster a binding relationship with their customers
and keep them coming back again and again. Out of 26 responding companies, 53.8% assert
employing loyalty programmes while 46.2% negate from this opinion.
Another component of RM which has been investigated is service quality which is affected by
the service dimensions. Respondents were asked to self-assess the quality of service
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dispensed by their firm and the general tendency of service dimensions means fluctuate from
above-average to good ratings (3.939); implying that from a broad perspective, all firms are
providing or have the potential to offer an above-average level of service quality. Nevertheless,
it should be noted that since this was a self-assessment question, it very likely that
respondents have been biased in trying to portray a positive image of their company.
Researchers have recognised that employees have a great role to play in the application of
RM and a even crucial role when delivering a service as many risks are associated with the
creation and delivery of services. As such, many authors reckon that human resource
initiatives impact greatly on service excellence as building a workforce adopting the culture of
customer-focus and sharing the firm’s corporate values to create high service quality and
breed customer satisfaction require the assistance of higher management and human
resources management authorities. The general mean pattern of this scale indicates an
inclination towards above somewhat important to important ratings (3.978); implying that
paper-printer marketers realise that HR initiatives affect the productivity of their employees and
the way output is rendered and subsequent effects on business relationships and customer
satisfaction.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is another core component of RM which has
evolved to become a technological tool in the form of CRM software which is widely used by
many firms across the world to hold customer data, define customer profile, enable product
and service matches to customer requirements and provide opportunities to cross-sell and upsell. Out of the 26 responding companies, only 31% affirm to possess a CRM software while
69% do not have it; underscoring the fact that many companies, particularly manufacturing
firms, do not rely on such technological mediums for managing customer relationships in the
business market in the local context of commercial paper-printing industry.
Amongst the paper-printers equipped with CRM software, 62.5% find it to be highly efficient
while 37.5% find it moderately efficient; showing that the efficiency contribute in some way to
the overall efficiency of customer-information management and customer communication. Of
all the paper-printers using a CRM software, 75% report to be satisfied while 25% report a
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moderate satisfaction rate, meaning that CRM software does help in certain aspects to ease
the data-collection and customer communication processes.
Hypothesis 1
H0: There is no significant relationship between marketers’ comprehension of Relationship
Marketing and its implementation in printing companies
H1: There is a significant relationship between marketers’ comprehension of Relationship
Marketing and its implementation in printing companies
The Chi-Square tests indicate a p-value of .042 which is less than .05; implying that we reject
the null hypothesis (H0) and accept H1. Agreeing to H1 means that there is a significant
relationship between marketers’ comprehension of RM and its implementation in paper-printing
companies. It highlights the fact that marketers who have a sound grasp of the concept have a
different (more customer-focused) marketing orientation.
The Cramer’s V value being .502 shows a moderate positive relationship between the two
variables tested.
Hypothesis 2
H0: There is no positive relationship between the level of assistance of higher management in
RM application and the level of service quality delivered
H1: There is a positive relationship between the level of assistance of higher management in
RM application and the level of service quality delivered
Mean of bivariate correlation: 0.283
Following a cross-tabulation of these two variables, a bivariate correlation was performed to
evaluate the relationship between the service dimensions (reflecting the level of service
quality) and the extent of assistance from higher management. Out of the 14 factors, only 2
(After-sales service and security) proved to have a correlation (the values being less than .05)
with high-management assistance while the others (having a value greater than .05) showed
no association with high-management assistance. Hence H1 is rejected and H0 is accepted;
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meaning that there is no significant relationship between the level of assistance of higher
management in RM application and the level of service quality delivered.
Hypothesis 3
H0: There is no significant relationship between adopting a customer-focused orientation and
the success of printing companies
H1: There is a significant relationship between adopting a customer-focused orientation and
the success of printing companies
Pearson Chi-Square (p-value): 0.436
The general analysis of the set of variables constituting a customer-oriented business process
with respect to the turnover of paper-printers (a success indicator) reveals that out of the 17
factors, 16 factors have a Cramer’s V value of greater than .05 while only 1 factor (State-ofthe-art technologies) shows a correlation with the turnover at a value of .040. Hence, we reject
H1 is rejected and accept H0; meaning that there is no relationship between having a customeroriented process and being a successful paper-printer. In contrast, Mitchell (1997) and Egan
(2001) staunchly affirm that having customer-centric business processes invariably impacts on
a business success.
Hypothesis 4
H0: There is no significant relationship between the exclusivity of customer information and the
propensity of customer interaction being collaborative
H1: There is a significant relationship between the exclusivity of customer information and the
propensity of customer interaction being collaborative
The Bivariate Correlation yielded a p-value of 0.01 meaning that we reject H0 and accept H1;
showing that there is a significant relationship between having exclusive customer-information
and the propensity of collaborative customer-interaction. The r-value being .552** indicate that
the relationship is strong positive one. This confirms, as Stone and Stone (1990), Harper
(1993) and Gattiker et al. (1997) suggest, that business-customers are very particular on the
information they share with the companies they deal with; hence, it is obvious that certain
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information being exclusively available to that firm will enable the latter to have a more
collaborative interaction with its customers (Egan, 2001; Varey, 2002).
5.0
Recommendations
The local commercial paper-printing industry is relatively small with few major players
contesting for the largest share of the juicy massive corporate-customer market. Consequently,
paper-printing firms must rethink their relationship with their current and prospective
customers. The industry is characterised by fickle-mindedness of customers switching to save
a few pennies or to get their needs met as required. Thus, paper-printers must understand that
if they want to build and sustain long-term working relationships with their customers in view of
retaining their loyalty and securing their own market-share, they need to acknowledge the
loopholes present in their current working system and business processes and find ways of
offsetting them and adopting pre-emptive means to thwart competition from eating into their
market-share. RM is also a business ideology which works on fostering a healthy and ethical
working pattern by offering due consideration to customers as well as other stakeholders of the
company.
Shape up the marketing department
It is equally deplorable to note that slightly more than one-third (34.6%) paper-printing
companies have reported not having a marketing department. Manufacturing firms have often
relegated the significance of the marketing function to the backseat; choosing to emphasize on
achieving high productivity levels and production excellence. However, it is crucial to
underscore that marketing plays a pivotal role in devising appropriate strategies to make a
company, brand or product/service known (Richards, 2009). “Marketing is the [only]
distinguishing, unique function of the business” (Drucker, 1954). Moreover, Kotler (1992)
advocates the paramount importance of marketing since it is the only function which is in
closest proximity with customers. Therefore paper-printing companies should establish a fully
operational marketing department to have a better interface of customer-interaction and
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develop more targeted marketing strategies. Without a properly defined marketing unit,
commercial paper-printers cannot expect to implement the RM philosophy and carry out
relational marketing strategies.
The helping hand of higher management in day-to-day RM application
The majority of responding-companies have stated that their company benefit from moderate
(50%) to low (8%) assistance from higher management; implying that top-management of most
paper-printers do not back tactical RM strategies. However, Hunt et al. (2006) and Lings
(2004) sustain that it is of quintessential for managers to set the example and lead the
company-members towards practising RM so that it become ubiquitously woven in the day-today processes till the whole corporate culture takes a relational shape. As such, directors,
managers and CEOs of commercial paper-printers have to take the initiative of lending their
maximum support and aid to the different departments across the organisation and mainly the
marketing department in view of fostering a RM culture to achieve their corporate goals.
Employees as the soldiers on the marketing chessboard
Though the marketers of local paper-printers do acknowledge that these factors affect the
productivity and service quality considerably (means of the factors ranging from 3.8 to 4.2), it is
questionable to as what extent have they been implemented in their company. Marketing
authors have often reiterate the need to make employees part of the overall marketing process
(Gummesson, 1997; Grönroos, 2000). Likewise, Arnett et al. (2002) sustain that “without good
and well-functioning internal relationships, external customer relationships will not develop
successfully.” It is, therefore, crucial that local paper-printers adopt relational HR practices as
part of their RM philosophy so that there is a holistic feel to the relational corporate culture.
This will also enable employees to understand the imperative for the business to have a
customer-centric service culture and will ease their process of embracing the relational
corporate values.
Focus on achieving service excellence
According to the survey, most paper-printers rated both their product (means ranging from 3.8
to 4.2) and service (means ranging from 3.6 to 4.2) quality as being well above-average to
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good. However, in this aggressively competitive battlefield, only companies providing service
excellence can be winners. As such, commercial paper-printing companies should leverage
the focus more on excelling on service quality as this is highly significant in securing customer
satisfaction and triggering repeat purchases (Christopher et al., 1991; Bolton and Drew, 1991;
Sheth and Sisodia, 1999). The fact that most customers have direct interaction with the
employees via face-to-face medium since most of the time the order is placed the purchasingofficers in person (54%), there is greater need to ensure that excellent service is delivered on
dimensions like communication, customer understanding, responsiveness, competence and
courtesy (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Lovelock et al., 2006).
Acknowledge the importance of complaints-management as an enhancer of service
quality
It is surprising to note that the study revealed that 62% paper-printing companies do not have
a complaints-management unit. Complaints-management have always been referred to as a
rich source of customer-feedback which draws attention to failure points in service delivery and
highlights flawed business processes, thereby bringing along opportunities for qualityimprovement (Lovelock et al., 2006). Moreover, companies providing a platform to welcome
customer-complaints are more knowledge-rich and better equipped with the knowledge of what
customers really want (Goulet, 2007).
Additionally, it is worthwhile highlighting that most paper-printers do not view complaintsmanagement as a constructive platform; rather they perceive it as merely a means of avoid
dissatisfied customers spread negative WOM (26.9%), a negative feature which is best kept
for least possible use (19.2%) and as a fall-back option for untoward happenings (11.5%).
Local paper-printers should seriously consider investing in the establishment of a complaintsmanagement unit to handle service failures and negative incidents so that they can enhance
their level of service quality and adequately compensate dissatisfied customers.
Develop and foster customer-partnering culture
Customer-partnering has changed the face of RM, especially in the B2B market; companies
are now stressing on the collaboration of customers and suppliers in delivering value for both
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(Howell, 2007). The survey revealed that 59% customers do not get the possibility of
collaborating on product-design and that out of them 53.8% are willing to get such
opportunities in the future. Commercial paper-printers should alter their modus operandi and
be more flexible in terms of their policies and production techniques as customers need
customised products and co-designing them will give them greater satisfaction as there will be
a better fit with their requirements (Drucker, 1973; Sheth and Sisodia, 1999; Egan, 2001).
Undertake adequate market research
It has surfaced during the study that 61.5% paper-printers do not carry out any type of
marketing research; implying that they lose out on the numerous opportunities to develop
pragmatic strategic marketing actions since they do not have a clear picture of the marketenvironment, the strengths and weaknesses of their company versus the opportunities and
threats of the external environment and their market-position in comparison to their
competitors (Kotler, 2005).
Local paper-printing firms should definitely embark on regular
marketing research to scan the micro and macro environments to get a comprehensive view of
where they stand among competitors, what are the threats looming their success and what are
the opportunities which could open up new avenues for their growth and success (Beri, 2000).
Devise pre-emptive ways to prevent customers from defecting and retain their loyalty
The study has demonstrated that factors like better product and service dimensions, marketing
communication, value-for-money offers, differentiated offerings, price-discounts, free valueadded services, new technological facilities, possibility of online ordering, money-saving loyalty
programmes and positive word-of-mouth (all with approximate means of 4) are likely to
encourage customers to switch forsake their current paper-printer for another. As such,
commercial paper-printing firms cannot sit idle; they have to act dynamically to make sure that
they foster trust and mutual commitment in the relationship with their customers (Ganesan,
1994; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). They have to ensure that they beat competitors on most, if not
all, of the above-mentioned aspects to retain their customers and encourage prospects to do
business with them. It is vital for paper-printers to extract this loyalty from customers by
proving that they a competitive advantage on competitors in terms of their USP, the technology
they use, the benefits they can offer and the extra mile they can go in delivering service
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excellence and ensuring total customer satisfaction (Heskett et al., 1997; Woodruff 1997; Rust
et al., 2000).
 Service customisation
Since products can easily be replicated and technological advantage can effortlessly be
acquired by competitors, paper-printers have to work on product and service
customisation to ensure that customers get a personalised purchase experience by
taking into account the corporate-customers’ specific requirements, businesspreferences (Ratneshwar et al., 1997), purchasing context (Jacoby et al., 1997) and
corporate culture (Adler, 1991; Chen et al., 1995).
 Use of CRM software
It is undeniable that that IT tools can tremendously lend a helping hand in managing
customer data to make it more constructive (as proven in hypothesis 6). As such, local
paper-printers should try to acquire a CRM software to aid them in organising their
customer-database and have more precise information so that their customer
interactions can be more timely and targeted. CRM software also offer the possibility of
measuring items like ROI, customer-base, market-share more metrically (Ryals, 2000;
McDonald, 2000; Kelly, 2000).
 Go online
It has been noted that most local paper-printers have limited online presence and they
do not exhibit the inclination to engage in e-commerce. However, 77% customers
affirmed to be ready to switch paper-printer if they were offered the ease of ordering
standard products online. Moreover, in this Web 2.0 era, local paper-printing companies
should come out of the traditional mould and flaunt an e-presence in terms of an
operational and commercially-viable website and by using social media marketing
(through interfaces like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) to build and sustain corporate
relationships (Peppers and Roger, 2009).
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6.0
Conclusion
Dated since the pre-industrial era, RM is a philosophy which has revived the relational school
of thought and has emerged as a shift in the marketing discipline during the last two decades.
However, during the past recent years, RM has witnessed a change in essence as the focus
on relational bonding, customer-care, service quality has taken another dimension with
‘collaborative marketing’, especially in the business-market. The research has shed light on the
rich marketing literature that exists on RM and has described the main underpinnings of the
concept in the context of business-marketing. The main models and theories associated with
RM have been discussed and their pertinence to industrial-marketing have been highlighted
with due mention.
The study has revealed that local paper-printers have a haphazardly organised marketing
system and the chaotically competitive structure of the market makes success a difficult
phenomenon in such circumstances. Marketing issues pertaining to paper-printing firms that
have surfaced through this research are the facts that the management of paper-printers does
not provide enough assistance in the application of RM at tactical level; internal marketing is
not given much importance; service excellence is overruled at the cost of matching
competitors’ service quality; complaints-management is neglected as a ‘step-child’ of service
quality; customer-partnering is not adopted de rigueur as part of the RM philosophy; and
marketing research does not much significance.
Following the analysis of these findings, appropriate corrective measure and recommendations
have been suggested in an endeavour to provide local paper-printing companies a broad idea
of the current state-of-affairs in the industry and subsequently the solutions that can be
adopted to succeed in incorporating RM as part of their core marketing strategy.
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7.0
Limitations and directions for future research
The study presented here-above has some limitations by virtue of the parameters set; it is an
attempt to unravel the salient marketing issues on the commercial paper-printing industry in
Mauritius. However, this piece of research presents only half of the picture as it does not cater
for customers’ perception on the practice of RM. Moreover, as much as there is a rich body of
literature on RM, it is important to underline the fact that not much research has gone into the
exploration of marketing practices in the paper-printing industry; be it locally or globally.
As such, it would be a purposeful initiative to undertake further investigation and research in
order to supplement areas which have not been covered and to complement the findings
revealed so far. Similarly, there is a need for more extensive research in areas like business
buying processes, supplier selection, purchase orientation, purchase processes and eprocurement; especially in the local context and with regards to the commercial paper-printing
industry. Furthermore, longitudinal studies focusing on the correlation of repeated observations
over long periods of time would yield more empirical and substantial evidence to determine
whether the findings of the current study are contextually valid. Likewise, the focus could be
shifted to other industry stakeholders to supplement additional dimension(s) to stream of
research on RM that has already been undertaken.
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