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The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct a growing area in marketing theory. It aims to critically examine the principles of relationship marketing as found in the literature and suggest opportunities for future conceptual maturation.

The conceptual discussion aims to assist future progress of relationship marketing and, more generally, marketing theory. While focusing on specific areas of departures and inadequacies in past and current research in the area, the discussion notes seminal philosophical questions which underpin current marketing sensibilities and which inform the nature of relational discourses.

It is argued that, in spite of recent developments in and maturation of relational discourses, some research in the field remains rather non‐contingent, theoretical and not observation‐informed. Importantly, it is biased towards the discussion of positive aspects of relationships. Matters of consequence to practice and research such as power and disciplining remain under‐researched.

By deconstructing and reconstructing current relationship marketing theory – partly by using a study of power and disciplining in situations of consumer dissatisfaction – ways of confronting shortcomings of relational research are illustrated. A more balanced and nuanced approach to marketing research and practice is proposed.

This is one of the few papers in marketing research, and relationship‐marketing research in particular, conceptually intrigued by the peculiarities of current thinking of relationships and exchanges. The contribution centres on three observations and a number of suggestions for future relational analysis. The discussion aims to help promote a fuller, deeper understanding of exchanges. It has been designed as a sketchy guide to future relationship marketing research.

Relationship marketing (RM) was conceived as an approach to industrial and service markets, and was considered inappropriate in other marketing contexts. Recently, however, the domain of RM has been extended to incorporate innovative applications in mass consumer markets. Much has changed in a few short years. Recent applications of RM in consumer markets have been facilitated by developments in direct and database marketing within an increasingly competitive and fragmented marketplace. This paper presents a critical review of the history of RM in consumer markets, and incorporates important conceptual, practical, empirical and popular contributions. A number of critical issues which remain unresolved are identified in the paper. These form the basis of ten research propositions which are crucial to justifying and advancing the domain extension into consumer markets.

Describes the importance of plastic payment cards at the point of sale (POS) and the evolution of the credit card in general and affinity cards in particular. Suggests reasons for both the growth of plastic card payments (the cashless society) and the threats to affinity cards (the interchange fee). Places the affinity credit card within the paradigm of relationship marketing and emphasises the triadic nature of these relationships. Discusses the development of the research into affinity credit cards and the issues of branding and trust that impact upon the triadic relationships. Explores the potential for affinity marketing and reports on research into trust and ethics which is relevant to this concept. Places affinity marketing within the retail arena and finally draws conclusions on the future for payments at the POS, relationships operationalised via plastic cards and triadic affinities.

Based on a research project with the purpose of defining the essence and scope of relationship marketing (RM). The marketing mix theory, which constitutes the prevailing approach to marketing, is made operational through the definition of the 4Ps and extensions of these. The core is a presentation of 30 relationships, the 30Rs, as a way of making the RM philosophy more operational and generally applicable. The 30Rs provide a basis for companies to work out their own specific relationship portfolio as part of their marketing planning process.

Electronic commerce has existed in the business‐to‐business marketplace since the 1970s, in forms such as electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic funds transfer (EFT). With the emergence of the Internet, and the World Wide Web in particular, electronic commerce entered a new era which opened the door for an electronic business‐to‐consumer marketplace. Although the retail side of electronic commerce is still in its infancy, the Web medium offers great potential for building the customer‐base, promoting sales, and improving after‐sales service. Examines the concept of relationship marketing, which has caused a paradigm shift in business‐to‐business marketing during recent years. Extends the concepts of network marketing to the Web retail marketplace, and develops a market process model for Web retailing that outlines the stages of the relationship building process.

Investigates the characteristics of the regular customer cards of four major Finnish retail organizations in the daily product sector with respect to the basic characteristics of (customer) relationship marketing. The purpose is to study whether, and to what degree, relationship marketing is the right framework in this regard for today’s retailing in Finland, and how this “new paradigm” can be applied in future to improve the effectiveness of the regular customer cards. Regular customer cards are found to correspond to relationship marketing mainly on its lowest level, and thus at a level where the benefits of relationship marketing are lowest as well. Alternatively, the regular customer systems and programmes are not yet developed enough to take advantage fully of the possibilities of relationship marketing. There is a lot of potential to improve regular customer systems and cards towards more relationship‐based marketing in the daily product sector in retailing by customization, augmentation, and internal marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to verify whether relationship marketing is a new paradigm that has replaced transactional marketing.

A literature and empirical study indicated that relationship marketing is neither an invention of the late twentieth century, nor prevailing in practice. This suggested that rather than a complete paradigm shift, relationship marketing and transactional marketing are complementary. Through interviewing five Scandinavian companies about their marketing priorities, their mix of transactional and relationship marketing approaches was studied.

The paper finds that no company exclusively used the relationship marketing approach. Some were merely utilizing the traditional marketing concept of 4Ps; others were blending a relationship and transactional marketing mix.

This is a limited study, which calls for further validating.

The Kotlerism of the 4Ps is still dominating. Relationship concepts are utilized to some extent. A relationship strategy can be used as a supporting approach. Thus, there is need to blend relationship and transactional marketing mixes.

The paper argues that the relationship marketing is not a paradigm shift; focus should be on relationship management, not marketing. The paper also shows the complementarities of relationship management and transactional marketing.

As retail organisations offer financial services to their customers at an increasing rate, this paper uses the emerging relationship marketing paradigm to gain strategic insights. The first level of analysis is at the organisation/customer interface. Four scenarios are analysed, which have recently emerged in international situations. These show that retail organisations are reducing the interaction and communication that banks have with their customers. Relationship marketing theory is then used to understand the implications that these scenarios pose for banks. The second analysis is at the business‐to‐business level. The application of the concept of relationship marketing at this level suggests that banks and retail organisations should focus on co‐operation rather than competition. This paper proposes strategic alliances will enable both parties to achieve more together than individually.

Given the ways in which the research pressures on university staff are becoming seemingly ever greater, an issue of the European Journal of Marketing that is given over to a survey of the kinds of research initiatives which are currently being carried out is timely. The study which provides the basis for this was conducted between December 1994 and February 1995, with questionnaires being sent to staff in universities throughout Europe. At the time the final selection was made, a total of 150 responses had been received from 18 countries.

Recent discussion about relationship marketing as a new marketing concept is strongly connected with a novel perspective on exchange processes as the core of marketing. Suggestions for changes in terminology – from transactions to relationships – and the enriched understanding provide the basis for developing marketing strategies. Analyses the understanding of transactions and relationships in the context of the conceptual exchange framework developed by Bagozzi in 1975. The reflection helps to locate the distinctive foci of actual relationship marketing proponents. Further illustrates the, until now, neglected research direction of marketing relationships in complex systems or networks. As a first step to closing this gap, and to develop further the scope of relationship marketing, outlines the role of marketing in the creation and design of “value systems”.