Key Words in Marketing (Customer Relationship Management) Essay

Key Words in Marketing (Customer Relationship Management) - Essay Example In the discussion section of the essay, the way how CRM evolved in the marketing and benefits of this mechanism in the marketing field have been explained. Customer Relationship Management The marketing concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implies an unconventional strategic initiative to align organisational goals with the customers’ expectations and preferences. With the adoption of this process, the companies tend to improve their transparency commitment towards the customers and attain substantial competitive advantages through their understanding of customer likings accurately. With the collection of data, the companies can also design better strategies for developing the consumer behaviour and therefore, stimulating a change in the overall marketing trend. Today, when the market diversity has become a major challenge owing to globalisation effects and technology advancements have made communication processes more effective as well as complex, understanding t he various segments in the market and serving the customer effectively has become a major factor of concern for modern day companies. It is in this context that the concept of CRM has gained considerable importance among modern business firms that binds all the aforementioned factors in a strategically oriented and objective-driven manner (Kamakura et al., 2005). The major benefit that a company can derive from the adoption of CRM is the analysis of the long term relation to be developed with the present and probable customers and also move ahead with an intention for increasing the profit margin and sales of the company. CRM also helps to increase their value towards the shareholders by conducting various marketing activities targeted towards the development and maintenance of the relationship persisting amid the customers and the company (Kamakura et al., 2005). Thus, CRM facilitates in the overall development of an organisation, maintaining a deeper association with the customers ’ expectations and thereby, ensuring a more sustainable growth altogether. Literature Review In the recent years, it has been observed that the concept of CRM has received an increased significance in the business and marketing contexts of organisational management. According to Parvatiyar & Sheth (2002), CRM, as an unconventional marketing management framework, implies a broader attention of the modern companies for understanding the various needs of the customers and also incorporating their knowledge of customer preferences to align the strategic operations accordingly. The significance of practicing the CRM concept can also be argued with respect to the companies’ need for obtaining accurate understanding of customers’ preferences and expectations to be incorporated in their marketing strategies with the intention of improving the cooperative relations with their customers and increase the sales and profitability in a sustainable manner therefore. According to Tadajewski & Saren (2009), in marketing, the terms, ‘relationship marketing’ and ‘CRM’ are used as an alternative to each other. Both of these terms are used for forecasting a wide range of perceptions observable amid the targeted customers that further influence the market trends to a substantial extent. Among these perceptions, few of them provide a very narrow explanation of the functional marketing whereas few of them determine the broader framework of the marketing