Relationship Marketing and Every Good Endeavor
Progress in Customer Value Differentiation versus Customer Needs Differentiation
To meet consumer demand and provide customer value, sellers in this new age of
business, must employ marketing tactics that are customer oriented. Relationships and familiarity
are utilized to generate trust and loyalty from the organization’s customers, and gaining this
loyalty and trust is one of the fundamental goals of all organizations. When an organization
differentiates its offerings based on the values that their customers have, the organization will
strengthen its bond with the customer. There has been an increase in customer value
differentiation because many organizations have seen success from its implementation, including
the ability to focus on customers that provide the most value to the organization (Wu & Li,
2019).
Meeting Individual Needs, is it feasible?
Providing for a customer’s specific desires is possible for the organization and in some
cases can be profitable for an organization. An organization should only cater to the individual
needs to consumers in a way that makes sense for the organization, allowing for a level of
specialization that will cater to the customer’s specific needs and desires. Individual consumer
requirements can be met in a practical and achievable way for the organization, this can be
achieved by adapting existing good and services into a format that can be specialized for each
consumer. The ability of a customization or specialization of a product to meet the consumers
requirements can be viewed as an example of flexibility (Medberg & Grönroos, 2020)
When Has Meeting Individual Needs Been Profitable?
There are several examples where meeting the consumers individual needs has been
profitable. In some industries specialization is crucial for organizational success and for the
organization to see profits.
Example One. The first example of specialization being profitable would be within the
tourism industry, which for some countries can be utilized as a way to create and sustain
economies. In many locations and countries, the employment of people within the area is
dependent upon tourism, and the types of people visiting the area. The many different types of
consumers that visit a tourism-based area will determine what services are offered to them, a
family traveling to an area is going to need different services than an individual traveling for
business; therefore, the experience must be catered to the customer’s individual needs (Camilleri,
2019).
Example Two. FedEx utilizes a system to classify its corporate customers into three
categories of; great, terrible and awful, based on the profitability of the organization. FedEx
gives its attention to the customers that are within the great category as they are considered the
organization’s best clients, and FedEx works to improve the experience for the other customers
in their lower categories to move them up to the highest level. This can be seen through FedEx
offering pick-up services to larger organizations, while encouraging smaller or more difficult
ones to utilize FedEx drop off locations (Garland & Salgado, 2022).
Example Three. A third example of customer specialization being profitable would be
for Wells Fargo Bank’s utilization of competition within the brokering market to merge products
with its clients in order to increase profitability per consumer. As a result of this tactic, the
organization has a goal to sell at least eight items to each customer. Wells Fargo has reported on
multiple occasions that one of the organization’s goals it to quadruple the portion of each
consumer’s capital assets (Collis & Rukstad, 2019).
Automotive, Airline, Personal Care, Hotel Industries and Customer Categorization
Automotive
Cadillac is well-known for its luxury cars and high-quality and long-lasting engines; this
is thanks to the organization’s industrial production. The organization has implemented
procedures that permitted part castings to be manufactured to relatively close tolerance levels
and utilizes this information to segment the organization’s products based on the individual needs
and wants of the consumer. The organization offers their consumer the options to purchase a new
car, a new customized car, pre-owned cars, with many of its customers looking for reasonably
priced and high-quality cars and would be considered to be members of a practical consumer
group (Pillai et al., 2019).
Airline
During the COVID-19 pandemic Delta made several significant improvements to
improve the safety standards for the customers. The airline aimed to please its customers by
continuing to offer luxurious service and catering to the consumer’s preferences and getting them
to their desired destination. However, customers during this time were seriously concerned with
safety throughout the pandemic. The airline responded to these concerns by offering their
customers face masks, increase cleaning measures and implementing new boarding procedures
(“Ready, Set, Let’s Go: Delta Gives Customers More Ways to Reclaim the Joy of Travel | Delta
News Hub,” 2023).
Personal Care
Proctor & Gamble, a leader in the personal care industry comprises numerous sub-brands
that are specialized within different categories of the personal care industry. Procter & Gamble
improved their earnings and expanded their product portfolio through strategic mergers and
acquisitions. Through strategic marking choices, the organization produces easily recognizable
products across many categories. To increase their categories, enter more households, increase
market share, increase profits, and attract resellers, the organization must be excellent and be
unique for its customers. Consumer and customer value is a strategic metric utilized by Proctor
& Gamble, including profitability, penny profit, trip creations, bundle size, and industry
expansion are all customer-focused metrics (Procter & Gamble, 2020).
Hotel Industry
Holiday Inn is known for catering to business travelers by providing them with the
services that they need and welcoming environment where business travelers and standard
vacationers can unwind while having access to all the amenities they need. Holiday Inn is seen as
an industry favorite compared to its competitors. Holiday Inn’s long-established dedication to
providing individual services to travelers as well as the friendly environment and convenient
accommodations, through this the hotel chain has earned the branding of America’s favorite hotel
(Customer Care | IHG, n.d.).
Every Good Endeavor Connection
The Cadillac Escalade and the GMC Yukon share a common platform and are within the
GM umbrella. The Escalade is priced far higher than the Yukon, but buyers are willing pay the
higher price for the Cadillac badging that is on the Escalade. This complicates the product choice
for the buyer, both cars are produced and owned by GM and are considered full-size luxury
SUVs. However, the reputations between the two are drastically different with the Escalade
receiving more celebrity notability than the Yukon (Rizqi, 2022). Both vehicles were designed by
a team of individuals created by God, so why can one sell so drastically different? All because of
God’s plan for all of us individually.
Biblical Connection
Luke 6:31 (ESV) “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”
Proverbs 13:11 (ESV) “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little
will increase in.”
Colossians 3:23 (ESV) “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
These three verses can be connected to relationship marketing as they can be interpreted
as how Christians should view operating organizations and planning marketing. As Christians we
should seek to grow our organizations according to God’s plan, while not hurting others or being
solely focused on profits. When performing marketing relationships, organizations should ensure
that they are treating their consumers as they would like to be treated, and the work they are
performing should be focused on how God would want the organization to interact with the
organization’s consumers. It is crucial that as Christians we act as God as instructed us to.
References
Camilleri, M. A. (2019). Market segmentation, targeting and positioning. In Tourism, hospitality
& event management (pp. 69–83). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49849-2_4
Collis, D. J., & Rukstad, M. G. (2019). Can you say what your strategy is? Harvard Business
Review. http://dspace.ashoka.edu.in/bitstream/123456789/4087/1/Can%20You%20Say
%20What%20Your%20Strategy%20Is%20Article.pdf
Customer Care | IHG. (n.d.). IHG. https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/
Garland, M., & Salgado, A. (2022). FedEx’s new CEO outlines a profit-boosting strategy as
demand wanes. Supply Chain Drive https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/fedex-ceo-
demand-drops-profit-boostingstrategy/625939/
Medberg, G., & Grönroos, C. (2020). Value-in-use and service quality: do customers see a
difference? Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 30(4/5), 507–529.
https://doi.org/10.1108/jstp-09-2019-0207
Pillai, S., Goldfarb, B., & Kirsch, D. A. (2019). The origins of firm strategy: Learning by
economic experimentation and strategic pivots in the early automobile industry. Strategic
Management Journal, 41(3), 369–399. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3102
Procter & Gamble. (2020). Brands. https://us.pg.com/brands/
Ready, set, let’s go: Delta gives customers more ways to reclaim the joy of travelO| Delta News
Hub. (2023, October 26). Delta News Hub. https://news.delta.com/ready-set-lets-go-
delta-gives-customers-more-ways-reclaim-joy-travel
Rizqi, H. (2022). Yukon Denali VS Escalade: Which Luxury SUV Is For You? Motor Verso.
https://www.motorverso.com/yukon-denali-vs-escalade/
Wu, Y., & Li, E. Y. (2019). Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social
commerce. Internet Research, 28(1), 74–104. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr-08-2016-0250
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