Building Competitive Advantage on the Internet using Relationship Marketing

This paper examines how relationship marketing, enhanced by data analysis techniques, can be applied to Internet marketing. One possible technique that can help the Internet marketer to build relationships with individual customers and hence achieve competitive advantage, is that of Direct Marketing. This paper begins by defining Relationship marketing (RM), examining its theoretical basis and its origins before moving to a discussion of some of the processes by which it can be applied to the Internet market. The first processes are marketing based and relate to a new paradigm of relationship marketing that implies the development of a relationship and hence loyalty. The second series of processes relate to data analysis procedures that can provide the marketer with accurate and current high-level knowledge about consumer behaviour.