Online relationship marketing

Abstract

Online interactions have emerged as a dominant exchange mode for companies and customers. Cultivating online relationshipsdefined as relational exchanges that are mediated by Internet-based channels-presents firms with challenges and opportunities. In lockstep with exponential advancements in computing technology, a rich and ever-evolving toolbox is available to relationship marketers to manage customer relationships online, in settings including e-commerce, social media, online communities, mobile, big data, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. To advance academic knowledge and guide managerial decision making, this study offers a comprehensive analysis of online relationship marketing in terms of its conceptual foundations, evolution in business practice, and empirical insights from academic research. The authors propose an evolving theory of online relationship marketing, characterizing online relationships as uniquely seamless, networked, omnichannel, personalized, and anthropomorphized. Based on these five essential features, six tenets and 11 corresponding propositions parsimoniously predict the performance effects of the manifold online relationship marketing strategies.

Editorial – Ten Trends Shaping the Future of Marketing: Considerations for the Academics

“…When reviewing recent articles published in top marketing journals, it is evident that these authors are well connected to the contemporary phenomena and are endeavouring to provide greater insights while maintaining the rigor of research in theoretical and methodological aspects. For example, recent studies have been looking into how new marketing technologies change consumer decision-making, information process and various behavioural aspects (Hilken, de Ruyter, Chylinski, Mahr & Keeling, 2017;Steinhoff, Arli, Weaven & Kozlenkova, 2019). Specifically some of these studies delve into the effect of multisensory technologies, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and various sensory inputs (including offline reality) on consumer's perception and behaviour in digital environments (Biswas, Lund & Szocs, 2019;Helmefalk, 2019;Motoki, Saito, Nouchi, Kawashima & Sugiura, 2019;Petit, Velasco & Spence, 2019;Rauschnabel, Felix & Hinsch, 2019).…”

“…Recent studies also investigate subjects related to personalization and customization, such as the use of mobile applications and various communication tactics to enhance business performance and facilitate consumer's decisions and experience (Cheah, Ting, Cham & Memon, 2019;Steinhoff et al 2019). Personalization is effective in the current environment as organizations have access to large volume of data on customer's purchase behaviour, website browsing, and preferences that can be analysed to create customer profiles (Liu-Thompkins, 2019;Schreiner, Rese & Baier, 2019;Shanahan, Tran & Taylor, 2019;Strycharz, van Noort, Helberger & Smit, 2019).…”

Atividades de chatbot no marketing de relacionamento em negócios digitais: estudo de caso múltiplos em empresas de varejo eletrônico

“…Dessa forma, as organizações utilizam os canais offline e online de comunicação com os clientes atuais e potenciais, abrangendo os diversos canais de comunicação online, desde uma lista de e-mail até a comunicação mais interativa nas mídias sociais. O ambiente digital permite que empresas digitais utilizem o chatbot como um novo meio de comunicação, permitindo que a empresa esteja disponível para atender os consumidores a qualquer momento e para criar um relacionamento com os potenciais clientes no ambiente online (Steinhoff, Arli, Weaven, & Kozlenkova, 2019;Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014).…”

“…A presença da tecnologia requer que o aspecto humano esteja mais presente quanto mais as interações forem high-tech (Gummesson, 2017 (Steinhoff et al, 2019).…”

“…Apesar da questão relacional de troca de benefícios mútuos estar presente tanto no relacionamento entre a organização e o cliente no meio online e offline, as características distintas do meio online faz com que o relacionamento online e o marketing de relacionamento online sejam desenvolvidos em contextos diferentes . Ao mesmo tempo que o relacionamento possa ser aprimorado e ampliado para novos clientes e parceiros (Damanpour & Damanpour, 2001), o meio online permite que os relacionamentos sejam desenvolvidos sem qualquer interação com um humano (Steinhoff et al, 2019). Apesar do marketing de relacionamento se referir a todos membros da rede de relacionamento de uma organização (Payne & Frow, 2013), o consumidor é aquele com maior presença no meio online, sendo o foco na literatura de marketing de relacionamento desenvolvida no meio online (Sheth, 2017) e na literatura de engajamento do consumidor ou marketing de engajamento (Pansari & Kumar, 2017).…”