Mogens Bjerre

Strategic relationship marketing

The Value of Relationships: Understanding the Buyer-Seller Relationships - the Roots of Relationship Marketing.- A Systematic Approach to the Buyer-Seller Relationship.- Discovering the Economics of Customer Relations.- Customer Loyalty and how It Affects Business Economics.Preconditions for Building Successful Relationships: Understanding the Driving Forces of Customer Relationships - an Actor Based Framework.- Supplier Relationship Levels.- Relationships Differ in Different Industries.Relationship Marketing Strategies: The Individualised Approach to Customer Behavior.- Generic Relationship Marketing Strategies.- Risks and Benefits of Relationships.

A model for structuring efficient consumer response measures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model which structures and links different types of efficient consumer response (ECR) measures; it does so by considering the use of both quantitative or “hard” and qualitative or “soft” measures in ECR, emphasizing the importance and causal role of “soft” measures throughout the ECR process.Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews the ECR and performance measurement literature and proposes a model that explains linkages from intra‐organizational, inter‐organizational and industry prerequisites through ECR activities to ECR outcomes; and highlights the role of performance, behavioural, attitude and capability measures. Two extant studies from Austria and Denmark are examined in the context of the model to exemplify some of its features.Findings – Similarities regarding issues of inter‐organizational and intra‐organizational prerequisites were found, but the two studies also demonstrated variety in the use of measures in ECR research.Research limi...

Can recipients of sales flyers be segmented

This paper investigates the possibility of identifying clusters among consumers receiving sales flyers from retailers (supermarkets, etc.). First, flyers are defined and then consumers’ perception of flyers is analysed, based on a representative panel. According to the analysis, three clusters are identified. The clusters possess quite different characteristics – not just in relation to their perceptions and attitudes towards flyers, but also when looking at demographic characteristics.

The Danish Retail Market: Overview and Highlights

This paper presents an overview of the Danish retail market. A detailed picture of the Danish grocery sector is provided, and we highlight issues from the specialty sectors of fashion and DIY as well as patterns of internationalisation among Danish retailers. We further profile the Danish consumer in terms of consumption patterns and demographic changes as well as some specific consumer tendencies with a special emphasis on sustainability issues. E-commerce is taken up as a special theme, both profiling the consumer side and the retailer side. This part is exemplified with books and groceries. Finally, we present the state-of-the-art of retail logistics in Denmark and analyse the impact on retailing of law on planning and law on opening hours.

Grocery e-commerce in the UK and Denmark – strategic market creation

The purpose of this article is to propose a framework for the analysis of market creation and apply this to the grocery e-commerce business. The article develops a model of four forces that interplay when companies engage in the process of creating new markets. The applicability of the model is exemplified by examining the interaction of the forces having created grocery e-commerce markets in the UK and Denmark. The application of the model reveals that besides the usual identification of competition intensity, the persistency of market reach efforts of a focal firm and the value attraction of its offerings play a significant role in the creation of grocery e-commerce markets. The practical implications are that retailers should not just transfer a grocery e-commerce set-up from one national market to another without considering the mentioned four forces in their own national markets.

The Individualised Approach to Relationships

Within the strategy literature, we find a number of typologies that focus on how firms should react to the outer environment.73 There have traditionally been two different foundations for these typologies: one has been based on theoretical arguments leading to e.g. the model of Competitive Advantages,74 and the other has been based on empirical studies aiming at describing what has been observed.

Customer Loyalty and Business Economics

The quest for loyalty has always been a cornerstone in human activity in general and in organisational life in particular. In a hierarchical power structure, members of an organisation accept the need of obeying leaders and following instructions. In ancient times, participants even swore their loyalty as an entry ceremony. In modern organisations, loyalty is also implicitly assumed and the reward-punishment system has loyalty as a central decisive factor. In hierarchies, market forces are eliminated. As long as you are a member of this organisational hierarchy, you must stick to our rules.

A Systematic Approach to the Buyer-Seller Relationships

That marketing should be regarded as exchanges in dyadic relationships, i.e. the two parties involved are regarded as a “closed” relationship without interference from outside, is not a recent observation.10 However, it still seems to be new to many marketers that focus must be on the outcome for both parties - simultaneously. In addition to this, one of the most significant differences between relationship marketing and traditional marketing is that it is necessary to identify the needs and demands of the customer’s customers in order to satisfy the customer’s demands in an on-going perspective. This does not only require a clear understanding of the customers’ demands, but also the customers’ motivations to formulate their demands in the way they have. This is comparable to the change of focus when selling a product because of its features to focus on the customer’s benefits from using the product.

Relationships in Different Environments

Relationships do not exist per se and they are not necessarily beneficial to any of the parties involved! The environment influences whether relationships may develop as well as their characteristics. This implies that the relationship will partly reflect the external conditions within the industry in which the partners of the relationship operate.58 Thus, there is no such thing as the “perfect” relationship, but rather relationships that are formed and developed under various forms of external and internal constraints.59

Relationship Marketing Strategy

In Chapter 1, figure 1-8, we presented and discussed some of the main theoretical contributions to relationship marketing: marketing management, the transaction cost theory, the political-economy paradigm and the network interaction approach. Although illustrative and comprehensive, the different views on relationship marketing do not offer sufficient guidance when it comes to the relationship marketing strategy creation.