Investigating relational marketing mechanisms and its effect on the loyalty of exported bitumen customers

Dissertation for Master's Degree

Marketing Business Management

Chapter One:

Research Overview

1-1- Introduction

In today's world, buyers are faced with many questions and buts and ifs to make a decision in the purchase process. The variety of different products has caused customers to face many choices. On the other hand, companies have realized that the cost of attracting new customers is five times the cost of keeping current customers, and losing a customer is not only the loss of a sales item, but beyond that, it means losing the entire flow of purchases that the customer could make throughout his life. Therefore, companies should always monitor and take care of the interaction between themselves and their customers and provide them with valuable goods and services by knowing and understanding the needs and values ??of customers in order to satisfy them and create loyalty and thus prevent them from changing their direction to other companies, and in this regard, relational marketing is one of the most successful approaches.

1-2- Problem definition

Traditionally, the customer has become the main pillar and axis of all the company's activities; In such a way that from a competitive point of view, the survival and continuity of life of organizations depends on identifying and attracting new customers and maintaining existing customers. One of the main concerns of companies is to investigate the effect of marketing tactics to increase sales and long-term relationship with customers on consumer behavior. Relationship marketing as a new approach has been observed as one of the most successful approaches in practice (Lin & Lu, 2010). Relationship marketing seeks to establish relationships with target customers who will buy or receive services from the company again in the future and encourage others to do the same. The best approach to maintain and maintain customers is to create a lot of satisfaction in the customer and pay attention to what is considered valuable for him, so that his loyalty to the company is strengthened as a result (Ndubisi, 2012). In fact, relationship marketing causes companies to gain competitive advantages such as reducing marketing costs, increasing buy cruciate rates, the positive effects of word of mouth marketing, and reducing marketing failure costs. (Jang and Koh, 2007). For example, in a research, researchers concluded that organizations can increase their profits by 100% by keeping approximately 5% of their customers (Iglesias et al, 2011). In recent years, relationship marketing has forced brand managers to look for more creative ways to create a mutually beneficial relationship with customers (Huang and Depeng, 2008). On the other hand, it is also necessary to mention this point that despite the great importance of these relationships on the success of organizations, it has not been given much attention in our country. plays an important role in the success of production and service organizations, and despite its importance in many organizations, they are unaware of its effect on their profitability and the effect it can have on the loyalty of their customers to their brand, the main goal of this research is In order to examine its effect on customer loyalty in the export bitumen market through a multi-dimensional investigation of relationship marketing and provide solutions for its successful implementation in this market. The amount of export of this product in 2019 was 1469 thousand tons with a value of 721 million dollars, and in 2013 it was 1524 thousand tons with a value of 748 million dollars. Paying attention to the marketing category in this industry can be more valuable for the country. 1-3- Necessity of creating research. Studying the successful strategic plans of the world, the rhythm of change from product-oriented to customer-oriented can be precisely recognized. Today, organizations must welcome the idea of ??change and respond dynamically to it in order to maintain their competitive power in today's world. In such a competitive environment, it is very difficult to attract new customers and retain existing customers. In addition, since the cost of acquiring a new customer is between 5 and 7 times the cost of keeping an existing customer, organizations must implement mechanisms to be able to retain their existing customers well. In the meantime, using relationship marketing and focusing on it in order to create an effective relationship with customers and influence and influence them can lead to an increase in loyalty.In the meantime, using relationship marketing and focusing on it in order to create an effective relationship with customers and to influence and influence them can lead to an increase in customer loyalty and increase the customer's lifetime value for the organization (Venos and Zahouri, 2019). Despite the numerous benefits of relationship marketing and its effective role in creating a competitive advantage for organizations, few researches have addressed this issue and investigated its impact on other aspects of marketing such as customer loyalty. Therefore, the need to address the relational marketing approach and identify its constituent variables in today's organizations, especially export organizations, has become more evident.

1-4- Research objectives

The main objective of the current research is to investigate relational marketing mechanisms and its effect on customer loyalty in the export bitumen market, so the general objectives of the research can be stated as the following:

1- Identifying marketing mechanisms Relational in the bitumen export market of the country 2- Explanation of the relationship between relational marketing mechanisms and their impact on customer loyalty 3- Explanation of the status of relational marketing components in the country's bitumen export market 1-5- Research questions According to the research objectives, the questions of the current research are: 1- Relational marketing mechanisms What are they in the export bitumen market of the country? 2- What is the relationship between communication links and the quality of communication in the export bitumen market? 3- What is the impact of relational marketing mechanisms on customer loyalty? 1-6 Research hypotheses Financial, social, and structural links have a positive effect on the quality of communication. Social is a structure that affects customer feelings.

Customer feelings affect the quality of customer communication.

Customer feelings affect customer loyalty.

The quality of communication positively affects customer loyalty.

1-7-Research limitations

The most important limitations that the researcher encountered in the present study The following can be listed:

Lack of access to foreign reliable scientific databases

Limited research conducted in Farsi regarding the subject of research

Collection of research data through field work

1-8- Research method

Scientific researches are divided into three basic, applied and research and development categories based on the purpose of the research. In basic research, the basic purpose of testing theories is to explain the relationships between phenomena and to add to the existing body of knowledge in a specific field. Basic research examines theories and confirms, modifies, or rejects them. In applied research, the goal is to develop applied knowledge in a specific field. The type of this present research is based on the purpose, in an applied form. Also, the current research method is a survey method in terms of data collection. In this method, after reviewing the research literature, the conceptual model will be explained and the data collection tool will be set based on its components. Then, through field work and collecting the opinions of the studied community (bitumen export market), the fitting of the model will be done. The time frame of the research is cross-sectional and it is 1392-91.

1-10-Aspect of research innovation

The present research is conducted at the level of foreign companies and international clients. Similar research has not been done in the field of bitumen industry and export markets, which is considered as an innovative aspect of the present research. 1-11- Chapters of the research In the first chapter of the present research, the problem and its importance, research objectives, research scope, research method and research limitations have been discussed. In the second chapter, the research literature includes theoretical concepts related to the research topic. It is also mentioned the research done in the past. In the third chapter, the research process and the research model are described. In the fourth chapter, the results of data analysis are presented. In the fifth chapter, the discussion and conclusions of the research are discussed and finally the practical and research suggestions resulting from the research are stated.