Relationship Marketing: A Strategy for
Marketing Programs to Diverse Audiences
Dallas L. Holmes EdD, USU Extension
Adapted from an article by
Lisa A. Guion, Heather Kent, and David C. Diehl
Florida State University Cooperative Extension, 2010.
Relationship Marketing:
How it differs from Personal and Ethnic
Marketing
 Personal Marketing
 Direct Marketing practices
 Booths at community fairs
 Visit community events
 Phone calls to key
individuals in the
community
 Cultural guides
 Partnership with other
community programs
 Ethnic Marketing:
 Consider ethnic diversity of
the target group
 Determine the level of
ethnicity
 Develop and implement your
campaign based on those two
factors
Relationship Marketing
 Relationship Marketing differs from the other two marketing
strategies identified in this series in a number of ways.
 It is the process of attracting, maintaining and enhancing
relationships with key individuals over time.
 Uses one-on-one communication to earn the loyalty of your target
audience.
 High-touch, person-to-person communication
 The most powerful and the most time-consuming.
Relationship Marketing
 The success of Extension programs is due to the loyalty of
committed participants, volunteers and lay leaders. Since its
inception, Extension has been fostering those relationships with its
core constituency.
 Those core groups often did not include people from ethnic
communities, or limited-resource communities.
 Therefore, these relationships need to be made with people from
those groups as well.
Relationship Marketing
 A key to relationship marketing is to
make it clear that your program is
going to last for a long time.
 Diverse communities are
accustomed to the short attention
span of programs that come in, make
promises, then lose their funding and
leave.
 Explain how Extension is different,
and that you are committed for the
long term.
Customer Retention Marketing within
Relationship Marketing
 Customer Retention Marketing (CRM) is the foundation of
relationship marketing.
 The goal is to convert the target audience into loyalists, loyalists
into enthusiasts, advocates and donors.
Customer Retention Marketing
within Relationship Marketing
 Step 1:
 Identify the audience with whom you wish to build a
relationship.
 What does this audience know about Extension and/or your program?
 How does this audience feel about Extension and/or your program
(positive or negative)?
 What needs does this audience have that your program can meet?
Customer Retention Marketing
within Relationship Marketing
 Step 2:
 If they know about Extension and feel positively about it, maintain a good
relationship by keeping in contact through impersonal marketing techniques,
such as mailings, brochures, etc.
 If they know about Extension and feel negatively or indifferently about it, use
the Six “P’s” from the Personal Marketing program. The Six P's represent people,
partnership, product, place, promotion, and price.
 Emphasize Promotion and Price
 If the audience does not know much about Extension, inform them. Again,
apply the Six “P’s” technique.
Customer Retention Marketing
within Relationship Marketing
 Step 3:
 Identify assets of individuals or institutions in the target
audience.
 Use the assets of these individuals and institutions to help carry out your
programs
 Having volunteers for short- or long-term assignments will help build
program ownership and foster even more participation
Customer Retention Marketing
within Relationship Marketing
 Step 4:
Actively solicit the increased participation and
involvement of community members. This will build
greater loyalty to the program. The community will be able
to identify on-going benefits of the program leading to
potentially increased involvement.
Customer Retention Marketing
within Relationship Marketing
 Step 5:
 Encourage greater support
from community members.
Loyal individuals are more
likely to advocate for the
program and/or donate
resources to the program.
Relationship Marketing
 Relationship marketing is a process, not a one-time event.
 Clientele must understand that you are committed for a long
time and that they can depend on you to provide your program.
 These connections will help Extension build strong community
networks, rather than relying on the limited scope of small
workshops and community meetings.
Tribal Departments Conferences and
Workshops on the Ute Reservation
 Boyd Kitchen, Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent
in Uintah County works regularly with the Ute Tribe
Tribal Departments and has developed many
conferences/workshops with Ute agricultural producers.
Tribal Departments Conferences and
Workshops
 His experience with Relationship marketing has evolved
over his many years of association with the Tribal Water
Settlement Department, the Farm Board, Farm Coop,
Tribal Education Department and Tribal Natural
Resource Department.
1. The Tribal Departments request educational programs . He
regularly discusses potential educational programs with
members of the board.
2. Tribal representatives participated in the planning.
3. The conferences and workshops have been held at the Tribal
Education department.
Tribal Departments Conferences and
Workshops
4. The Tribal Public Relations department advertise programs in
the Ute Bulletin and on the weekly radio program (which is
given in English and Ute) as well as in local newspapers.
5. Dr. Kitchen keeps the programs planned flexible, adjusting
presentations to the interests and needs of the participants.
6. Incentives for attending include prizes, support publications
and often lunch.
Tribal Departments Conferences and
Workshops
 Boyd Kitchen used relationship marketing strategies to gain
trust in leaders of the target audience, create a positive image
of Extension, and offers programs that are both applicable
and congruent with Native American needs and traditions.
References
 DeYoung, B., & Boldt, W. (1998). Relationship marketing: Putting
relationships to work. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Cooperative Extension
Marketing Manual.
 Guion, L.A., Goddard, H.W., Broadwater, G., Chattaraj, S., &
Sullivan-Lytle, S. (2003). Strengthening programs to reach diverse
audiences. Gainesville, FL: Florida Cooperative Extension,
University of Florida.