Relationships and technology: strategic implications

It is argued that the ethos of relationship management is a necessary cultural precursor to effective CRM and unless the ideal of relationship marketing is engrained within a firm or if a firm is unwilling to undergo the required cultural change, it is prudent for firms to drop the 'relationship' rhetoric and limit their focus to advanced database marketing.

Abstract

Abstract The customer relationship management (CRM) rhetoric is powerful and persuasive. The rhetoric typically positions advanced computer solutions as a way of implementing the relationship management ideal in mass consumer markets. However, this paper argues that the ethos of relationship management is a necessary cultural precursor to effective CRM. Moreover, in the absence of corporate-wide buy-in to the ethos, the implementation of suitable information systems can be fraught with political difficulty. Consequently, unless the ideal of relationship marketing is engrained within a firm or if a firm is unwilling to undergo the required cultural change, it is prudent for firms to drop the 'relationship' rhetoric and limit their focus to advanced database marketing. Keywords: Relationship MarketingConsumer MarketsInformation TechnologyCulture