Social media marketing and relationship marketing: revolution or evolution? A first step analysis

Purpose of the paper: By relying on the value creation perspective from a knowledge economy viewpoint, the aim of the paper is to verify if the introduction of Social Media may be considered as an evolution or as a revolution of Relationship Marketing.

Methodology: A wide range of online databases were searched by means of keywords in order to analyze both academic and professional literature. Afterwards we used the snowball method in order to identify related references.

Results: Identification and description, according to an economic-managerial perspective, of the constitutive elements of a theoretical framework which allows us to analyze the relationship between RM and Social Media Marketing.

Practical implications: Definition of the operational elements concerning the distinction between RM and Social Media Marketing so that the decision maker of firms may identify the innovative elements of Social Media within marketing strategies and policies, in particular with regard to operational tools (ICT and managerial).

Limits of the research: Since this is the first phase of a larger research, the study mainly deals with the analysis of RM literature by highlighting only the main contributions in the field of Public Relations.

Originality of the paper: Identification of specific operational relationships between Social Media Marketing and RM by relying on the knowledge economy perspective of Italian strategic-managerial matrix. Identification of specific research questions which economic-managerial research has to answer in order to solve the relation between RM and PR in the context of Social Media.

Full PDF

Riferimenti bibliografici

ACKER O., GRONE F., YAZBEK R., AKKAD F. (2010), Social CRM. How companies can link into the social web of consumers, retrieved from http://www.booz.com.

AIJO T.S., (1996) The theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of relationship marketing: Environmental factors behind the changing marketing paradigm, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 30, n. 2, pp. 8-18.

ANG L. (2011), Community relationship management and Social Media, Database marketing and customer strategy management, vol. 18, n. 1, pp. 31-38.

BAIRD C.H., PARASNIS G. (2011), From Social Media to Social CRM: reinventing the customer relationship, Strategy and Leadership, vol. 39, n. 6, pp. 27-34.

BAND W., PETOUHOFF N.L. (2010) Topic Overview: Social CRM Goes Mainstream, Forrester Research Inc. retrieved from http://www.forrester.com/Topic+Overview+Social+CRM+Goes+Mainstream/fulltext/-/E-RES55884?docid=55884.

BERNOFF J., LI C. (2008), Harnessing the power of the oh-so-social web, Mit Sloan Management Review, n. 49, pp. 36-42.

BERRY L. (1995), Relationship marketing of services-growing interest, emerging perspectives, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 23, n. 4, pp. 236-245.

BERRY L., PARASURAMAN A. (1993), Building a new academic field. The case of services marketing, Journal of Retailing, vol. 60, n. 1,pp. 13-60.

BERTHON P., PITT L., MCCARTHY I., KATES S. (2007), When customers get clever: Managerial approaches to dealing with creative consumers, Business Horizons, vol. 50, n. 1, pp. 39-47.

BRUHN M., SCHOENMUELLER V., SCHAFER D.B. (2012), Are Social Media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation?, Management Research Review, vol. 35, n. 9, pp. 770-790.

BUSACCA B. (1994), Le risorse di fiducia dellimpresa, UTET, Torino.

CASTALDO S. (2002), Fiducia e relazioni di mercato, Il Mulino, Bologna.

CHERUBINI S., PATTUGLIA S. (2012), Social Media Marketing. Consumatori, imprese, relazioni, Franco Angeli, Milano.

CHRISTOPHER M., PAYNE A., BALLANTYNE D. (1991) Relationship Marketing: Bringing Quality, Customer Service and Marketing Together, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford.

CHRISTOPHER M., PAYNE A., BALLANTYNE D. (2002) Relationship Marketing: Creating Stakeholder Value, 2nd edn., Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford.

COLLEONI E. (2013), CSR Communication strategies for organizational legitimacy in social media, Corporate Communications: an international journal, vol. 18, n. 2, pp. 228-248.

CORCORAN S. (2009), De?ning owned, earned, and paid media, Retrieved from http://blogs.forrester.com/interactive_marketing/2009/12/de?ning-earned-owned-and-paid-media.html.

CORNELISSEN G. (2008), Corporate communication: theory to practice, SAGE Publications Ltd, London.

COSENZA V. (2012), Social Media ROI, Apogeo, Milano.

COVA B, DALLI D. (2009), Working consumers. The next step in marketing theory?, Marketing theory, vol. 9, n. 3, pp. 315-339.

CURTIS L., EDWARDS C., FRASER K., GUDELSKY S., HOLMQUIST J., THORNTON J., SWEETSER K. (2010) Adoption of social media for public relations by nonprofit organizations, Public Relations Review, vol. 36, n. 1, pp. 90-92.

DISTASO M., MCCORKINDALE T., WRIGHT D. (2011), How public relations executives perceive and measure the impact of Social Media in their organizations, Public Relations Review, vol. 37, n. 3, pp. 325-328.

DUNCAN T., MORIARTY S.E. (1998), A Communication-Based Marketing Model for Managing Relationships, Journal of Marketing, vol. 62, n. 2, pp. 1-13.

EVANS D. (2010), Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement, Sybex Inc.

FAASE R., HELMS R., SPRUIT M. (2011), Web 2.0 in the CRM domain: defining social CRM, International Journal Electronic Customer Relationship Management, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 1-22.

FIESELER C., FLECK M., MECKEL M. (2010), Corporate Social Responsibility in the blogosphere, Journal of Business Ethics, n. 91, pp. 599-614.

FINOTTO V., MICELLI S. (2010), Web e made in Italy: la terra di mezzo della comunicazione dimpresa, Mercati e Competitivit, n. 4, pp. 101-119.

FIOCCA R., MAGGIONI I. (2014), Attivare e gestire limpresa relazionale, in Dalli D., Fornari D. (2014), La discontinuit nelleconomia delle imprese (titolo provvisorio), EGEA, Milano, In corso di pubblicazione.

FORD D. (1980) The Development of Buyer-Seller Relationships in Industrial Markets, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 14, n. 5/6, pp. 339-353.

GALANO L., MARCHIGIANI L. (2013), Online business social network e strumenti per la gestione delle relazioni di business nelle PMI, Mercati e Competitivit, n. 2, pp. 59-82.

GILLIN P. (2009), The New Influencers: A Marketers Guide to the New Social Media, Quill Driver Books, Sanger, CA.

GORDHAMER S. (2009), 4 ways Social Media is changing business, retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/Social-Media-Business/

GRANDINETTI R. (1993), Reti di Marketing, Etas, Milano.

GRANDINETTI R. (2002), Concetti e strumenti di marketing: il ruolo del marketing tra produzione e consumo, Etas, Milano.

GREENBERG P. (2010), The impact of CRM 2.0 on customer insights, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, vol. 25, n. 5, pp. 410-419.

GRNROOS C. (1994), From marketing mix to relationship marketing, Management Decision, vol. 32, n. 1, pp. 4-20.

GRNROOS C. (2004), The relationship marketing process: communication, interaction, dialogue, value, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, vol. 19, n. 2, pp. 99-113.

GRNROSS C. (1990), Relationship approach to the marketing function in service contexts: the marketing and organization behavior interface, Journal of Business Research, vol. 20, n. 1, pp. 3-11.

GRNROSS C.(1994), Quo vadis, Marketing? Toward a Relationship Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 10, n. 4, pp. 347-360.

GRNROSS C. (1989), Defining marketing: a market-oriented approach, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 23, n. 1, pp. 52-60.

GUMMESSON E. (1996) Relationship marketing and imaginary organizations: a synthesis, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 30, n. 2, pp. 31-44.

GUMMESSON E. (2002), Relationship Marketing in the new economy, Journal of Relationship Marketing, vol. 1, n. 1, pp. 37-57.

GUMMESSON E., (1994) Making Relationship Marketing Operational, International Journal of Service Industry Management, vol. 5, n. 5, pp. 5-20.

GWINNER K., GREMLER D.D., BITNER M.J. (1998), Relational Benefits in Services Industries: The Customer’s Perspective, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 26, Spring, pp. 101-114.

HKANSSON H., SNEHOTA I. (1995), Developing Relationships in Business Networks, Routledge, London.

HKANSSON H. (1982), International Marketing and Purchasing of Industrial Goods, Wiley, London.

HANNA R., ROHM A., CRITTENDEN V.L. (2011), Were all connected: the power of the Social Media ecosystem, Business Horizons, n. 54, pp. 265-273.

HENNING-THURAU T., HANSEN R. (2000), Relationship Marketing – Some Reflections on the State of the art of the Relational Concept chapter 1 in Henning-Thurau T., Hansen R. (2000) Relationship Marketing Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention, Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg.

HENNING-THURAU T., MALTHOUSE E.C., FRIEGE C., GENSLER S., LOBSCHAT L., RANGASWAMY A., SKIERA B. (2010), The impact of new media on customer relationships, Journal of Service Research, vol. 13, n. 3, pp. 311-330.

HIBBARD J.D., BRUNEL F.F., DANT R.P. IACOBUCCI D. (2001), Does Relationship Marketing Age Well?, Business Strategy Review, vol. 12, Winter, pp. 29-35.

INVERNIZZI E., ROMENTI S. (2013), Relazioni pubbliche e corporate communication / Le competenze e i servizi di base, McGraw-Hill Companies, Milano.

ISENMANN LENZ (2001), Customizes corporate environmental reporting by internet-based push and pull technologies, Eco-Management and Auditing, vol. 8, n. 2, pp. 100-110.

KAPLAN A., HAENLEIN M. (2010), Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media, Business Horizons, vol. 53, n. 1, pp. 59-68.

KIETZMANN J.H., HERMKENS K., McCARTHY I.P., SILVESTRE B.S., (2011), Social Media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of Social Media, Business Horizons, vol. 54, n. 3, pp. 241-251.

KORNUM N., MLBACHER H. (2013), Multi-stakeholder virtual dialogue: introduction to the special issue, Journal of Business Research, vol. 66, n. 9, pp. 1460-1464.

LEWIS B.K., NICHOLS C. (2012), Attitudes and perceptions about Social Media among college students and professionals involved and not involved in strategic communications, in Noor Al-Deen H., Hendricks J.A., Social Media: usage and impact, Lexington Books, Plymouth.

LOVETT J., OWYANG J. (2010), Social Marketing Analytics. A framework for measuring results in Social Media, Altimeter Group downloaded from www.web-strategist.com.

MACNAMARA J. (2010), Public relations and the social: how practitioners are using, or abusing, Social Media, Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, vol. 11, n. 1, pp. 21-39

MACNAMARA J., ZERFASS A. (2012), Social Media Communication in Organizations: The Challenges of Balancing Openness, Strategy, and Management, International Journal of Strategic Communication, vol. 6, n. 4, pp. 287-308.

MANGOLD W.G., FAULDS D.J, (2009), Social Media: the new hybrid element of the promotion mix, Business Horizons, vol. 52, n. 4, pp. 357-365.

MANYIKA J., CHUI M., BROWN B., DUGHIN J., DOBBS R., ROXBURGH C., BYETERS A. (2011), Big data: the next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity, McKinsey Global Institute, report downloaded from www.mckinsey.com.

MICELLI S. (2010), Imprese, reti e comunit virtuali, ETAS, Milano.

MOORMAN C., DESHPANDE R., ZALTMAN G. (1993),Factors affecting trust in market research relationships, Journal of Marketing, vol. 57, n. 1, pp. 81-101.

MORGAN R.M., HUNT S.D. (1994), The commitment-trust theory of relationship Marketing, Journal of Marketing, vol. 58, n. 3, pp. 20-38.

MORTARA A., SINISI V. (2012), Tecno-mamme e Social Media nella relazione con il brand: unindagine esplorativa, Micro & Macro Marketing, n. 2, pp. 273-285.

MUNIZ A.M., OGUINN T. (2001), Brand community, Journal of consumer research, vol. 27, n. 4, pp. 412-432.

NADEEM M. (2012), Social customer relationship management: how connecting social analytics to business analytics enhances customer care and loyalty?, International Journal of Business and Social Science, vol. 3, n. 21, pp. 88-102.

NEWALL F. (2000), Loyalty.com, McGraw-Hill, New York.

NGUYEN B., MUTUM D.S. (2012), A review of customer relationship management: successes, advances, pitfalls and futures, Business Process Management, vol. 18, n. 3, pp. 400-419.

NORMANN R. (2001), Reframing Business: When the Map Changes the Landscape, Wiley, Chichester.

NORMANN R., RAMIREZ R.(1993), From value chain to value constellation: designing interactive strategy, Harvard Business Review, n. 71, pp. 65-77.

OREILLY T. (2005), What is Web 2.0?, OReilly Media Inc. retrieved from http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web20.html.

OWYANG J. (2010), Framework and matrix: the five ways companies organize for social business, retrieved from http://bit.ly/cXkOlB

PASTORE A. (2009), Market driven management nelleconomia digitale, Mercati e Competitivit, n. 1, pp. 5-11.

PAYNE A., FROW P. (2005), A strategic framework for customer relationship management, Journal of Marketing, vol. 69, n.4, pp. 167-176.

PAYNE A., HOLT S. (2001), Diagnosing customer value: integrating the value process and relationship marketing, British Journal of Management, vol. 12, n. 2, pp. 159-182.

PEPPERS D., ROGERS M., DORF B. (1998), The One to One Fieldbook, Currency-Doubleday, New York.

PETERSON R. (1995), Relationship Marketing and the consumer, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 23, Fall, pp. 278-281.

PINE J.B., GILMORE J.H. (2000), Leconomia delle esperienze. Oltre il servizio, Etas, Milano.

PORTER L., SWEETSER K., CHUNG D. (2009) The blogosphere and public relations: Investigating practitioners’ roles and blog use, Journal of Communication Management, vol. 13, n. 3, pp. 250-267.

REICHELD F.F., SASSER W.E. JR (1990), Zero defections comes to services, Harvard Business Review, September-October, n. 5, pp. 105-11.

REINARTS W.J., KUMAR V. (2003), The impact of customer relationship characteristics on profitable lifetime duration, Journal of Marketing, vol. 67, n. 1, pp. 77-99.

ROSENBERG L., CZEPIEL J., (1984) A marketing approach for customer retention, Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 1, n. 2, pp. 45-51.

RULLANI E. (1989) La teoria dellimpresa: soggetti, sistemi, evoluzione in Rispoli M. (a cura di), Limpresa industriale. Economia, tecnologia, management, Il Mulino, Bologna.

RULLANI E. (1997), Tecnologie che generano valore: divisione del lavoro cognitivo e rivoluzione digitale, Economia e politica industriale, n. 93, pp. 141-168.

RULLANI E. (2001), New, net, knowledge economy: le molte facce del postfordismo, Economia e Politica Industriale, n. 110, pp. 5-32.

RULLANI E. (2004a), Economia della conoscenza, Carocci, Roma.

RULLANI E. (2004b), La fabbrica dellimmateriale, Carocci, Roma.

SASHI C.M. (2012), Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships and Social Media, Management Decision, vol. 50, n. 2, pp. 253-272.

SCHULTZ F., WEHMEIER S. (2010), Institutionalization of corporate social responsibility within corporate communications. Combining institutional, sensemaking and communication perspectives, Corporate Communications: an international journal, vol. 15, n.1, pp. 9-29.

SHANI D., CHALASANI S. (1992) Exploiting Niches Using Relationship Marketing, Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 9, n. 3, pp. 33-42.

SHETH J.N., PARVATIYAR A., (1995), The evolution of Relationship Marketing, International Business Review, vol. 4, n. 4, pp. 397-418.

SIANO A. (2012), La comunicazione per la sostenibilit nel management delle imprese, Sinergie, n. 89, pp. 3-23.

SIANO A., VOLLERO A., CONFETTO M.G. (2005), CRM e scelte di comunicazione dimpresa, Esperienze dimpresa, Serie Speciale S3, pp. 53-88.

SINGH S. (2005), Web 2.0: Connectedness, sharing, and the social. Retrieved from http://www.siliconindia.com/magazine_articles/Web_20Connectedness_sharing_and_the_social-NLF651991104.html.

SMITH PR., ZOOK Z. (2011), Marketing communications. Integrating offline and online with social media, KoganPage, London.

SOLIMA L. (2010), Social Network: verso un nuovo paradigma per la valorizzazione della domanda culturale, Sinergie, n. 82, pp. 47-74.

TOFFLER A. (1980), The Third Wave, William Morrow, New York.

VARGO S.L., LUSCH R.F. (2004) Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing, Journal of Marketing, vol. 68, January, pp. 1-17.

VERHOEVEN P., TENCH R., ZERFASS A., MORENO A., VERCIC D. (2012) How European PR practitioners handle digital and social media, Public Relations Review, vol. 38, n. 1, pp. 162-164.

VERNUCCIO M., CECCOTTI F., PASTORE A. (2012), Linnovazione nella comunicazione integrata di marketing secondo gli attori del network. Una lettura con le mappe cognitive, Sinergie, n. 88, pp. 93-113.

WANG R., OWYANG J. (2010), Social CRM: the new rules of relationship management, Altimeter Group retrieved from http://www.altimetergroup.com/2010/03/altimeter-report-the-18-use-cases-of-social-crm-the-new-rules-of-relationship-management.html.

WOODCOCK N., GREEN A., STARKEY M. (2011), Social CRM as a business strategy, Database Marketing and Customer Strategy Management, vol. 18, n. 1, pp. 50-64.

WRIGHT D.K., HINSON M.D. (2009), An analysis of the increasing impact of social and other new media on public relations practice, paper presented to 12th annual International Public Relations Research Conference, Miami, Florida.

ZERFASS A., FINK S., LINKE A. (2011). Social media governance: Regulatory frameworks as drivers of success in online communications, in 14th International Public Relations Research Conference Proceedings, Miami, USA.