Jeremy Lisenbe
MKT421
November 15, 2017
Roger Houthoofd
Understanding Marketing and Customer Relationships
Introduction
An article in the Journal of Marketing stated that “understanding and managing customer relationships is fundamental to marketing. Accordingly, firms spend in excess of $12 billion annually on customer relationship management, in efforts to understand how to target and sell to customers across various relationship stages” (Zhang, Watson, Palmatier, Dant, 2016). The purpose of marketing is more than simply creating a catchy advertisement for a product or service, or product placement. Building a strong customer relationship experience is also key.
Marketing and Customer …show more content…
Not only does marketing attempt to promote or offer a good or service but at the same time, emphasis is placed on building a relationship with potential customers by also communicating the value that the good or service will create for them. While many may only relate advertisements or commercials to marketing, that is only a piece of the marketing process. The full process not only promotes the good or service to the public, but also prepares the good or service for the marketplace by learning and knowing their customers, learning their competition and pricing competitively, and building a brand that many want or need. The textbook, Marketing (2017), discusses the four elements of marketing; product, price, promotion, and place (Kerin and Hartley, chapter 1), which are the controllable factors of marketers. These elements contribute to the customer value proposition, which is “a cluster of benefits that an organization promises customers to satisfy their needs” (Kerin and Hartley, 2017, chapter 1). These values for the customers are achieved by things such as the quality of the product or service, the convenience, or the price, among other things, and works to create a loyal relationship …show more content…
As an employee of this company and reliant on the continued business of our customers I believe that Union Pacific has exhibited a great talent for marketing the “value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (Kerin and Hartley, 2017, chapter 1). Though Union Pacific delivers a much needed service, it is the constant improvements in customer relationship that helps our company remain America’s premier railroad franchise. If I was included in the marketing decision making process I could only suggest the continued push to create the relationship mentality that is promoted by doing business with our company. As new technology rolls out in the near future, such as Positive Train Control and Trip Optimizer, our marketing will only strengthen as we are able to express to the public our willingness to go to great lengths and costs to increase public safety as well as continuing improvements on