Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets: The Paradigm That Refused to Shift

The last two decades of the last century witnessed the rapid rise to prominence of the concept of relationship marketing. A prolifera of papers were published and many claimed that a new dawn in marketing had begun, and that a paradigm shift had taken place (see for example, Gummesson, 1997; Gronroos; 1994; Bordie et al. 1997). Relationship marketing was conceived as a management approach in industrial and service markets (Gummesson, 1994, 1997; Sheth and Parvatiyar,1995a; Christy et al.1996). Gummesson (1988) additionally proposed that the interaction theories had also influenced the concept of relationship marketing. The concept was then extended to consumer services and goods markets, facilitated by the development of technology, and improvements in database and direct marketing (O’Malley and Tynan, 1998; Christy et al. 1996; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995b). However, many questions about relationship marketing remained unanswered. Indeed, a small number of cautious authors questioned the conceptual basis of relationship marketing in consumer markets and wondered whether it was just a ‘fad’, or a “buzzword (Covellio et al.1997). Today, the daily news of how unhappy consumers are with their services providers, including national and international brands, tell us clearly that relationship marketing in consumer markets has not happened.