Customer Satisfaction and Marketing Research

Company Information

The company which has been chosen as part of devising a new marketing plan for the next five years is a large corporation within the construction industry. It has been very successful in the past in achieving high profits and undertaking huge investments. The company traditionally follows the transactional marketing approach which did not focus much on the customer satisfaction.

The structure of the organisation has been based on a traditional hierarchical formation having only one-way communication and accountability. The organisation has employed customer directors who act as sales force while the operation directors manage the project functions. However, a lack of coordination could be witnessed among both of the directors which imply that the functions are systematically divided into distinct vertical silos leading to transactional efficiency instead of resulting in market effectiveness. The company rates its clients by distinct colours e.g. red, yellow and orange, according to the profit margins derived from each. Yet, this criterion is not made clear to the customer directors. It has been additionally observed that the traditional construction relationships in this company are not much worked on and hence are adversarial in nature. This leads to confusion in the firm's objective and lack of concerned attitudes towards the long-term relationships. The company also does not shows much concern about the environmental challenges that are faced by the construction industry and the firm's operations are generally focused on achieving profit maximization and having high returns on capital employed. The firm doesn't provide specialized training to its service staff who is directly dealing with the clients. This results in a lack of customer-centred approach.

Assumptions

The following assumptions are made:

- The company predominantly follows a transactional marketing mix approach.

- Recognises the importance of relationship building, yet currently leaves this to individual responsibility.

- Does not have a separate customer department.

- Adopts traditional marketing methods in undertaking projects.

What needs to be done?

- An entire change in the organisational structure which involves the ways in which the departments communicate and report to each other.

- Needs to adopt a more customer-centred approach.

- Focus on the firms' relation with all kind of stakeholders including the supply chain members, environmental agencies, government authorities and Non-governmental organisations.

Literature Review

The marketing management with its transactional marketing model since 1960s has ruled the literature, research and practices of marketing. Professional practitioners, researchers, instructors and various academics similarly have been overwhelmed with this method that long ago attained an exemplary position (Kuhn 1957; 1962). Occasionally the marketing mix is referred to as marketing model only. On the contrary, it always has been a lasting influence on the marketing thought of research practitioners and also on the marketing research directions as well as the organization .This has led the academics to describe it as a Paradigm. Furthermore, it has been termed as the leading marketing approach of the last decades. Although the elements of transactional marketing. i.e. Price, Place, Product and promotion, are not all impractical as marketing variables, the philosophical basis of the marketing mix and its Ps are not much applicable to the competitive state that has been developing in various industries. The traditional approach which relate to the marketing mix prevents the firm from adjusting its marketing strategies to address the growing demands of customer today for enhanced value and efficient service.

Since the 1980s, marketing has seen a large shift moving from the transaction approach of the marketing mix to a more proactive approach known as relationship marketing. The basis of relationship marketing has been to restore the customer relationship in the large organizations which was once the main feature of the sole trader businesses. The aim is to transform the relations and the way the business deals with its customers through changing the strategy, systems and behaviors. This particular concept has been seen to be more suitable for business to business transaction particularly asset-specific products (Smyth and Fitch 2009).

Relationship marketing is used as term in marketing literature, which aims to draw customer interest and gain customer retention through marketing tactics (Jackson, 1985; Doyle and Roth, 1992).

Ajio (1996), Day and Wensly, (1983); Gronroos (1990; 1994); Gummesson, (1997a, 1997b and Robicheaux and Coleman, (1995) added to this by explaining that relationship marketing could also be used to attract customers to a new marketing paradigm. Others (Berry, 1983; Christy, Oliver and Penn, 1996; Gronroos, 1994; Kotler, 1991; Morris, Brunyee, and Page, 1998; Mudambi and Mudambi, 1995) relate to this concept by perceiving this as being mainly associated with achieving strategic purposes. Numerous aspects are used to describe it as a tactical choice. For example, Berry (1983, p. 25) describes relationship marketing as "attracting, preserving and retaining, and enhancing customer relationships in multi-service corporations. Morgan and Hunt (1994, p. 22) explains the concept of relational marketing as all the activities that happens in marketing that are directed towards establishing, developing, and upholding successful social exchanges.

The common themes that underlie the foundational concept of relational marketing could be based upon the exchange which takes place between different parties.

According to Dwyer et al., (1987), relationship marketing can be explained by using the concept of relational exchange as opposed to discrete transactions. In reality, each of the business transaction consists of at least a nominal quantity of history and projection into the future, and consequently categorized as 'relational exchange'. Dwyer et al. (1987, p. 13) identify 12 dissimilarities of discrete versus relational exchanges to offer resources to classify when an exchange is more detached or more relational in its structure. Morgan and Hunt (1994, p. 22) use these ideas to define relationship marketing and say, "relationship marketing discusses all of the marketing actions directed in the direction of establishing, developing, and preserving effective relational exchanges". To recapitulate the nature of the exchange pattern for defining relationship marketing, it can be said that the aim of this new approach is to shift the exchange pattern from the traditional transactional exchanges to the modern relational exchanges assuming that the relational exchange is more desirable.

Numerous existing definitions and metaphors of relationship marketing precisely perceive the customer as one of the exchange contributor." According to Berry (1994), the primary driver behind relationship marketing is to focus the marketing efforts on the customers after they have actually become one of the business's customers. Levitt (1986) on the contrary describes relationship marketing as 'relationship management' as he states relationship management can be considered as a unique field as it is focused towards maintaining the goodwill of the business.

Applying Levitt's theory that relationships to the firm are intangible assets, numerous current studies have anticipated that relationship marketing takes account of all forms of an organization's relationships; a fact put forward for consideration of four general partnership areas (supplier, internal, lateral, and buyer), Morgan and Hunt (1994, p. 22) state, "evidently all that is missing from existing definitions of relationship marketing is the precise acknowledgment that in several occasions relationship marketing as one of the exchange participants do not have a 'Customer''.

The interesting thing about this is that it does not matter whether one adopts a narrow approach towards relationship marketing which revolves around buyer-seller relationship or sticks to the broad perspective, the business customer relationship forms the basis of every kind of research done in this regard. However, it has been revealed that relationship marketing has often ignored the consumer markets as confirmed by Sheth (1994).

Marketing Plan

In order to overcome the inconsistencies that is seen in the marketing efforts of the chosen construction company, marketing plan for the next five years is devised. The marketing plan is based on the notion that the marketing efforts should be directed beyond the traditional concept of 4Ps.

The new strategy is to transform the traditional management functions into horizontal management functions where the business emphasizes on relationship management. This can be supported by the arguments given by Storbacka et al., (1994) and Pryke and Smyth (2006) who explain that horizontal management functions help in transforming the simple management processes into relationship management process model. These new processes are also systematically aligned with the part time marketing as argued by Gummesson (2001).

The new plan focuses on the concept of Partnering, one of the most commonly used relationship marketing techniques by the construction industry. Construction Industry Institute (CII) defines partnering as a longstanding loyalty between the service provider and consumer where the objective is to attain business objectives while maximizing the benefits to each party (CII, 1991). This means that as a means to add value to the business, the partnering strategy should be used by the selected construction company in order to create and agree on mutual objectives and collaborate at every level for providing enhanced services to the clients. Generally speaking, the plan is focused on bringing about change from shifting from project management approach to the managing of the project approach as previously done by Morris (1994). Particularly the aim is to improve the marketing as well as relationship management so that to facilitate in service provision which would hopefully enhance the profitability of the business by increasing the turnover.

In order to implement relationship marketing, the company cannot determine some set of marketing variables that could be used. Rather, the marketing decisions need to be formed on any encounter with a customer which would use business resources to make a marketing impact. The resources are used up regardless of their location in the organisational hierarchy which implies that the company's hierarchical forms will achieve more liberation though more delegation of power from the higher position. In order to come up with some marketing decision at the very encounter with the customer, the staff dealing with the customers would be provided enough training programs to deal with the customers efficiently (Gronroos 1996).

It has been observed that the company has separate vertical units which focus on transactional efficiency rather than creating market effectiveness. Hence, it is proposes that an awareness on the relationship marketing needs to be incorporated at all stages of the organisation's hierarchy (Gronroos 1996).

Being a construction company, it is essential to create a difference between long-term (strategic) partnering and short-term (project) partnering (Barlow and Jashapara 1998). Strategic partnership is association between two or more parties for a long period of time in order obtain the desired objectives by maximizing the efficient utilization of the resources of each party. This involves an inter-organizational collaboration where resources are shared and committed in order to work on common goals. This reduces costs and enhances the systems and procedures. On the other hand, project partnering involves short term collaborations where the two parties agree to work together on the common goals in order to resolve the issues and complete the works on timely basis (Black and Akintoye 2000).

The company needs divide its relationship marketing strategies into short-term and long-term categories. Once the partnering strategies are differentiated, the company can work towards building relationships and collaborations keeping in view its strategic preferences. Adopting this strategy does not means that the role of the marketing specialists ends here, for implementing the traditional activities the marketing specialists are required and also the company would need consultants to instil the market consciousness throughout the organization.

The development and implementation of a governing relationship plan would prove helpful in planning the relationship marketing. The governing relationship plan would be a market focused corporate plan that would aim to instil marketing orientation all the future planning.

The company relies on traditional market segmentation techniques to serve the customers; however in relationship marketing special attention is paid to individual customers and every kind of information obtained by the different customers. It is proposed that the company monitor its performance under relationship marketing and directly manage its customer base and use the statistics to make likely forecasts about the future expectations (Gronroos 1996). Rather than viewing all the changes as part of the broader term marketing, the word of 'task management' would be used across the organisation so everything is managed efficiently based on task specific requirements.

As part of long term change, the six market model known as KAM would be applied to this case. This function is introduced after considering its core capability to bring a change in the way organizations are run (Pralahad and Hamel 1990). It will also focus on generating relationship marketing throughout the management of the company making every one a part of this process (Gummesson 2001). Hence, it is realized that relationship marketing is not a one man show and thus should be reflected in the practices of each and every member of the firm.

The relationship management process model given by Storbacka et al. (1994) can also serve the purpose to act as a main driver being the change management required as the model was devised to manage the projects in the past (Pryke and Smyth 2006). This model has several aspects as it would seek to allocate the investment and the costs incurred in the new process and also apply the concepts of marketing to all of the organisation's dealings with the clients and activities of project management (Hamel and Prahalad 1996). This contrasts with the traditional marketing mix approach.

Through the six markets model provided as KAM, a serious consideration about the project management and clients' needs would be made. As part of the implementation process, the first year the primary focus would be the internal and customer markets. The internal situation of the firm would initially be organised and strategies devised to penetrate in the customer markets. This would be done in the first year of the marketing plan. However, it is recognized that without a high quality staff no progress can be made. Hence, the plan for the next year will constitute to train the existing staff and hire the new high quality staff so that the churn rate could be reduced.

By the third year, other markets would be paid attention to in order to incorporate the new market developments and increase the learning in the existing markets. The company's foremost plan would be incorporate relevant strategies so that a healthy and effective relationship is made with the customers.

By 2008 referral markets and influence markets were beginning to be additional foci. Iterative adjustment to existing processes have been required to accommodate both new market developments and learning in existing markets.

The model of KAM is to be implemented in the organisation through two roles. It is realized that the company has customer directors as well as operation directors who lack communication among each other. Additionally, the customer directors act more as a sales force and are not customer centred. Hence, the company would seek to appoint Sector Directors (SDs) so that they coordinate all the strategies among the departments and manage the sales activities by concentrating on individual processes. These directors would offer services by addressing all the activities involved related to engineering of the activities, management service, domestic as well as international construction, Financial Management and other finance related services which are related to a specific market sector.

These market sectors would include many areas including the areas of transport and energy, retail sector etc. this will help to broader the company's scope.

Appointing Senior Directors (SDs) is part of the new marketing strategy of the firm which seeks to incorporate relationship marketing into each and every area. In addition to these, the job description of the Customer directors (CDs) will be enhanced so that they have an increased responsibility not only for higher sales but also to ensure customer satisfaction. Their dealings with the customers would be in form of cross selling of business services, refining the repeat business they would also seek to gain high net profit margins about 3 to 4 per cent. This would help the firm in increase its other strategic benefits that are explicit in nature such as its own reputation, and increasing the return on capital employed.

The current structure of the company is very similar to a military hierarchy. This entails a change in its organisational structure. Incorporating the new structure which is less hierarchical and is based on both the vertical and horizontal communication requires a change in the philosophy of the ways in which things are done. Thus, delegation is one of the drivers behind this kind of change and it will require an initiative on part of the top heads. The horizontal communication and accountability can be stressed upon as a very important element for the company which would link the marketing operations of the company and enable cross functional working and encouraging the opportunities for gaining a sound reputation in the supplier markets.

The model of KAM will operate at two levels: the Senior Directors and the Customer Directors. The SDs will develop the sector plans which will form the bases for the business plan. In each of the sectors, separate customer account plans are to be made for each of the customer. Along with the customer account plans, the customer relationship action plan is also to be developing which will allow the firm to build valuable relations and add service value.

The win strategies for different projects will be addressed by these separate plans which will also be linked with the project specific factors. This will provide a clear stance on each of the project. Additionally, the SDs will chair the sector meeting which will provide a means for cross-functional coordination. The marketing plan includes the development of skills of the SDs so that they possess the required management skills and a technical knowledge of each issue in the projects.

Conclusion

The transactional approach to marketing which has mainly focused on changing the core elements of the marketing mix including the 4Ps has been practiced for quite a long time. However, the changing needs of the world and the customers have made this approach unsuitable for today's competitive market situation. Organisations have recognized the growing importance of the customer role and realize that ultimate success and profitability depends on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is not a simple concept but one which requires a complete change in an organisation's structure. The organisations have thus shifted to the relationship marketing approach which focuses on 'building relations with the customers'. It is fallacy that construction sector does not needs to pay much attention to building strong relations with the customers. The fact is that customers are the ones who contribute to the good or bad reputation of an organisation. Further, a company needs to take into account every need of their clients. For this, relationship marketing has proved very useful. For the selected organization, it is proposed to adopt a partnering strategy where the long-term and short-term strategic partnerships are clearly distinguished. As a part of the relationship marketing concept, the KAM model has been practiced in some constructions firms and has proved to be successful. Considering this, the company chosen in this case also has been applied with the concept of KAM. The aim is to shift from the transactional approach to a more customer centred one.

References

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Barlow J, and Jashapara A., 1998. Organisational learning and inter firm partnering in the UK construction industry. Learn Organ J;5(2):86-98.

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Black C, and Akintoye A, 2000. Fitzgerald E. An analysis of the success factors and benefits of partnering in construction. Int J Project Manage;18(6):423-34.

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Entrepreneurship - Learning and Understanding

Learning is the process of getting to grasps something in one's mind. It can also be termed as a way of providing knowledge to human beings. This is achieved through different methods. Group discussions, personal study, interviews are part of the learning methods. Personal study also implies as a method of learning where an individual is able to collect data alone as well as compiling it. This ensures that the student is able to understand the concept easily. The teacher is also able to identify the poor students quickly.

Knowledge-based objectives

- Assess potential market opportunities

This is an exceptional skill in entrepreneurship. Assessing potential market opportunities is the identifying of the workability and acceptability of the products and services idea in a region. During my learning experience, I got to find out that this widely relied on strategic questions that provide answers to the future of the business. This questions place an entrepreneur in a position whereby he can visualize his success and failure beforehand. This prevents unnecessary ventures into businesses with low market threshold and brings about diversification as concepts are put in place to shift the market acceptability of the product or service. During my interviews, I realized that all this entrepreneurs had set up their businesses in a rich market i.e. a region with demand of their products or services.

Main points that impact upon the successful creation and management of a new venture

During the class session, I grasped the fundamental drivers that lead to a successful new venture; this was later added upon during our brainstorms in the group discussion session. I realized that the key drivers to successful ventures are; people, money, assets, profit and growth. All this determine the success of the venture in one way or the other. Money is considered the fuel required for a business, to foot bills and to be used as capital (Barbe). Profit margins should be revered for a successful venture, this makes it worthwhile, the growth of the venture and its acquisition of assets are significantly related growth is marked by the expansion of the business either to other regions or to other fields, a successful business is marked by a constant positive growth rate. Also, the people either associated or managing the venture also determine the growth of the venture broad minded, dedicated and honest people propel a business to greater heights making them an asset to the business.

- Acquiring the required resources in starting up a new venture

This topic was highly supplemented during the interview sessions with the entrepreneurs. I got to learn about the start-up resources i.e. people, physical assets e.g. offices and also financial resources. - The different methods one acquire this are many including loans, and business venture promoters. The capital is used to fetch the minimal number of each of resources and this are used until the company is able to fend for itself.- Appreciate the importance of business planning in new venture creation and growth

2. Skills based objectives

- Generate new business ideas

A business idea is a concept to be used for commercial use. I learned that for an idea to work analysis has to be done that provide an entrepreneur f different platforms and approaches to start his venture. This skill is what defines each and every entrepreneur as each entrepreneur conceptualized original ideas that made him acceptable to the market.

- Critically assess a new business idea

During the class sessions I got to learn the fundamental questions to ask when assessing a new business idea. This actually gives a rough idea of its workability.

- Investigate on the resources required to pursue an opportunity

This skill is necessary to know the cost to start a business. The resources area vital part of the business according to the interviewed entrepreneurs, unmanageable start resources would lead to extraordinary losses and a failed venture hence was an essential skill.

- Critically evaluate a new business proposal

I got to learn that a business plan defines a venture generally and significantly helps one visualize the business. By critically evaluating a business plan one is able to evaluate he risks involved in engaging in the venture and also come up with a blue print that counters this risk for a full-proof venture:

- Appreciate how to develop a business plan for a new business venture. The process of creating a business plan though cumbersome is immensely helpful as it encourages the entrepreneur to study the market and establish his business. It also evaluates the failure or success of the business.

- Understand the skills and resources needed to create an entrepreneurial organization.

From the group discussions that helped us develop some of these skills I learnt that a successful entrepreneur is defined by the following:

- Personal characteristics, Interpersonal skills. Critical and creative thinking skills and Practical skills

3. Non-subject specific skills and cognitive proficiency

Team building skills, Market research skills, net working skills Analytical skills under conditions of uncertainty ,selling skills, Risk Management skills, Presentation skills, - All this skills are quite beneficial for a successful entrepreneur. During the discussions ad interview sessions these skills were explored and instilled, team building skill being fundamentally boosted by the interaction of entrepreneurs to one cause.

By attending these classes, I have gained enough knowledge on the procedure to take when starting a business as well as risk management skills. My negative attitude towards entrepreneurship has changed. I now have a clear understanding of what is clearly entitled in it. The three classes have tremendously affected my life. There was this one interview I held. My main objective on this interview was to be able to develop new skills of handling new and innovative ideas, know when to take a risk or not. The entrepreneur seemed confident enough for someone who had ventured into business like his. This particular entrepreneur dealt with selling and buying the most innovative and creative interior designs of houses. I have vastly improved in my schoolwork due to the important information. I have managed to relate the teachings with other subjects like actuarial science .This has brought a change I my life .I have now managed to start my own business and run it comfortably. An entrepreneur is a person who would be able to see a business opportunity and exploit it. The result is to exploit such an opportunity in to an economic resource.

Entrepreneurship is the quality of an entrepreneur in applying finance and business insight and who takes on new ideas to establish new business ventures or transform existing business. The transformation of existing businesses either transforms them in to new business outfits or revolutionaries business processes. Entrepreneurship has large scope ranging to individual projects to multi-players involving enormous sum of money and job creation. Single individual projects capital can be raised from owner's savings or loan. Normally such enterprises do not have a complex capital outlay. On the other hand, vast entrepreneurial ventures require a large amount of capital. It is this reality according to my observation which set entrepreneurs above ordinary folks. The massive capital outlay is never a bothers to an entrepreneur. Source of capital like venture capital and angel capital is applied to raise the business capital in the long run.

It is the existence of entrepreneurs which have necessitated the formation of science parks, business incubators and Non Governmental Organization. These ventures according to my observation have the clientele in entrepreneurs. The term entrepreneurship has evolved to cover non- business initiatives in recent years. Entrepreneurs have natural beaut managerial skills. This is because, they are able to see an opportunity, conceptualize an idea and organize it to their advantage.

On the hand, new venture creation is the process transforming an entrepreneur idea into a business venture. This is the planning stage of the implementation process. In each venture, each process is guided by type and the environment. The type is dependent on whether it is a service manufacturing venture. The environment on the other hand would mean wide range of external factors to the business venture - examples are legal, social, or even economic factors. New venture creation process determines to a large extent the success of enterprises. This is especially true in the first early years of business. It has been noted a sizeable number of new businesses do not see their second birthday. This makes new venture creation more essential than there before. Another importance factor in this process is to seek viability and feasibility of an entrepreneur idea from a third party perspective. As noted, entrepreneurs are generally risk takers and achievement driven that they may fail to take note of impracticality of the idea. This process should involve experts who have experience in business and finance management. Experts who may come in handy at this point include marketers, land economics, lawyers and investment managers. At the end all facet of a business will be analyzed to avoid or minimize future upsets when the business is up and running. Many entrepreneurial ideas will never materialize without this critical process. New venture creation is incubator between a business idea and market demand.

Linkages between your learning in this course and other subjects studied

The group work and interview with some of the entrepreneur have helped in bringing the class work in to practice. Some of the first hand points offered by entrepreneurs were generally similar to information found in the course curriculum. The skills of starting a new business venture are similar to graduate skills taught as part of the course. Thus, they enhance students' understanding of the real world business realities in relation to course work.

The relationship that exists between the entrepreneurship courses in relation to other subjects studied can be drawn. In the sciences and applies subjects for example, there are clear business links. For example in art design, principles of new venture creation are similar to the process involved in design planning. The consideration given in processes and the environment can be similar.

Many students have had an opportunity in the course of their schooling to study business related courses. Most of them were basic entrepreneurial 'a by the way' courses. They already had an idea of the process of setting up a business, selling a products and factors to consider when opening a business. Their university experience is now building on that.

Also business-start-up subjects are offered in other business and non-business courses. These are accessible as elective subjects by students from other courses. This knowledge will be less put in to use by a student studying textile design more than all others (Swassing). It will be treated as a by the way. This is because it was not presented to them in the context of their course specialty. If such a student was to form a textile design business, then the business knowledge though shallow, will not make a lot of sense.

On the other, a business course student is prepared to view the whole subject from a wide spectrum. The knowledge can be applied in diverse business ventures since the principles are similar.

In relation to a selective module like ethics, the general principles of hard work, discipline, and being focus are parallel. The principles which guide many entrepreneurs are similar to the ones taught in ethic class. An entrepreneur is on who has his mind focused, right attitude, and hard worker. These principles are advocated in ethics class for every person who aspires to succeed.

In comparison to philosophy class, the analytical and questions to a certain way of doing things are an excellent parallel to the principle of new venture creation. Many of entrepreneurs have sharp eyes on things. Through questioning and analyzing, entrepreneurs are able to create new business ideas and opportunities (David, 1999). On the other hand, philosophy train students to critically challenge the status quo and hypothetically sort answer to not obvious questions.

At this point, it is the responsibility of an ardent student of business to find how business start- up can be nurtured across industries. It would not be academically viable to set up a business module as an elective subject I all the disciplines.

In conclusion, the whole was more than an eye opener to me .I now have a better understanding about entrepreneurship. I now contend that such talks should be held regularly. People should also have the inner urge of attending such gathering sine they help us to have a better understanding of things, as well as acquiring more knowledge.

References

David Card, 1999. "Causal effect of education on earnings," in Handbook of labor economics, Orley Ashenfelter and David Card (Eds). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Swassing, R. H., Barbe, W. B., & Milone, M. N,1979. The Swassing-Barbe Modality Index: Zaner-Bloser Modality Kit. Columbus, OH: Zaner-Bloser.

Barbe, W. B., & Swassing, R. H., with M. N. Milone, 1979. Teaching through modality strengths: Concepts and practices. Columbus, OH: Zaner-Bloser.