Kotler and Borden are not dead: myth of relationship marketing and truth of the 4Ps

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to verify whether relationship marketing is a new paradigm that has replaced transactional marketing. Design/methodology/approach – A literature and empirical study indicated that relationship marketing is neither an invention of the late twentieth century, nor prevailing in practice. This suggested that rather than a complete paradigm shift, relationship marketing and transactional marketing are complementary. Through interviewing five Scandinavian companies about their marketing priorities, their mix of transactional and relationship marketing approaches was studied. Findings – The paper finds that no company exclusively used the relationship marketing approach. Some were merely utilizing the traditional marketing concept of 4Ps; others were blending a relationship and transactional marketing mix. Research limitations/implications – This is a limited study, which calls for further validating. Practical implications – The Kotlerism of the 4Ps is still dominating. Relationship concepts are utilized to some extent. A relationship strategy can be used as a supporting approach. Thus, there is need to blend relationship and transactional marketing mixes. Originality/value – The paper argues that the relationship marketing is not a paradigm shift; focus should be on relationship management, not marketing. The paper also shows the complementarities of relationship management and transactional marketing.