An Analysis Upon Relationship Marketing and Buyer Behavior In Fmcg: Exploring the Adequacy of Relationship Marketing in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Markets

Abstract

The present dissertationinvestigates the adequacy of relationship marketing concepts to markets forfast-moving consumer goods. Supporters of the relationship marketing approachurge companies to focus their marketing efforts on the retention of their mostvaluable customers. This recommendation flows from the belief that loyaltyrather than penetration is the best way to grow a brand. Relationship marketingemerged in the context of service marketing, but in recent years its scopewidened to the point where a number of authors consider it a new paradigm ofmarketing relevant for any company in any type of market. Namely, interest forrelationship concepts has been growing among manufacturers of fast-movingconsumer goods who try to overcome the limitations of traditional massmarketing approaches. However, in contrast tothe dominant Howard-Sheth theory of consumer buyer behavior, the NBD-Dirichlettheory of purchase behavior predicts that, when repeat-buying behaviorprevails, such relationship marketing strategies will not work as expected.