McKenna (1991)

Management > Global Marketing Management > Lectures > Independent Research > McKenna

McKenna (1991) - Relationship Marketing

Technology is integrating the customer with the company, which is transforming the marketplace. Communication and advertising then is no longer one-sided; companies need to have a continuous dialogue with customers to understand and predict their changing needs.

Listening to customers can enable firms to engage in market creation, rather than struggle with market sharing. Firms need to then define a narrow market and then dominate it.

To build relationships, services and products need to be merged. In the computing industry, 70% of the business is service, such as consultancy and customer support.

Relationships are more important with high-risk complex products, as customers need support and reassurance. They need certainty if the product involves uncertainty in some form.

He discusses dynamic positioning of three types: product (how it fits into the competitive market), market (how the firm understands the infrastructure and distribution channels of the market) and corporate (whether the firm is perceived as credible) positioning.

A successful firm will develop relationships with the “market infrastructure”, including analysts, retailers, developers, journalists, suppliers and other supporting firms.

McKenna breaks the market into four types: early adopters, early majority, majority and laggards. It is important for a company to identify which category they should target.