Relationship Marketing: Understanding and Implementing the Concept

Even though marketing has always been based on relationship, Relationship Marketing (RM) is thought to be a new phenomenon in the province of marketing. The advent of mass marketing and mass production obscured the idea of RM for quite a long time. Fierce competition, eroding brand loyalty, dirty price war among competitors and heightened expectation of the customers have been instrumental for the recent emphasis on RM. However, RM as a marketing approach is still ambiguous to many practitioners. This paper is set out to provide a conceptual framework of RM. It describes the concept, elements, and functions of RM as a marketing tool. It also offers a brief note on the existing practices of RM in Bangladesh and highlights the growing needs for such approach in the current competitive milieu