Relationship and Transactional Marketing Integration Aspects

There is no consensus among marketing scholars and practitioners regarding transactional and relationship marketing differences and correlations. Coviello, Brodie and Munro (1997) have sought to understand the nature of these phenomena and suggested an integrated approach towards a variety of marketing types. They created a classified scheme based on Europe and the US marketing schools 'ideas'. By synthesizing various conceptual marketing approaches the scholars defined two main marketing perspectives (transactional and relationship) that incorporate four marketing types (transactional, database, interaction, and network). However this classification lack empirical evidence as very little research has been conducted to test it. The present research is aimed to assess the relationship among these marketing types and their correlation with organization's performance success in IT market. The survey questionnaire was designed using Coviello et al. (1997) suggested scheme that encompass nine dimensions: purpose of relational exchange, pattern of communication, type of customer contact, the level of relation-ships' formality, duration of relationship exchange, managerial intent, managerial planning focus, and managerial resource investment. The research results indicated that all four marketing types (transactional, database, interaction, network) are practiced in IT market at different levels. The most developed marketing types are interaction marketing (8.19) and database marketing (7.33). Transactional marketing (6.38) and network (6.65) marketing are practiced less. The relationships between different marketing types were measured using correlation analysis. The results of this analysis indicate no statistically significant correlations between transactional marketing and relationship marketing. These findings imply that relationship marketing practice development does not cause the decrease of transactional marketing elements. Statistically significant medium correlation was found between database marketing and interaction marketing (r = 0.786, p < 0.01). No statistically significant correlation was found between database and transactional marketing ((p = 0.05). Strong correlation between database marketing and interaction marketing types confirm the theory that database marketing employment creates better conditions for effective one-to-one communication which is the essence of interaction marketing. These findings lead to conclusion that database marketing belongs to relationship marketing orientation. The strong correlation between interaction and network marketing are consistent with Ford, Hakansson and Johanson (1986) findings that dyadic relationships emerging in transactional marketing are network marketing micro level phenomenon. The research data comply with Coviello (1996) theory about relationship marketing that claims that relationship marketing incorporates different marketing types. The research findings also indicated that there is no correlation between different marketing types and organizations' performance success. On the other hand, a strong relationship was found between database marketing and customer retention. These findings suggest that organizations with more developed level of database marketing demonstrate better customer retention level.