Corporate Partnerships and Sponsorships. Corporations have always been associated
with sporting and cultural events. The Virginia Slims women’s tennis tournament and the
Winston Cup in car racing are examples of organizations trying to influence customer attitudes
and behavior through associations. Typically, such associations are both cognitive and social in
nature. In recent years, there has also been an increase in organizations developing alliances with
worthy causes and/or with nonprofit organizations (Andreasen 1996, Brown and Dacin 1997,
Varadarajan and Menon 1988). Such partnerships and sponsorships seem to serve as
“idiosyncratic investments” or pledges that influence the commitment of both parties to the
relationship (c.f., Anderson and Weitz 1992). They also signal to the customer that the
organization is “socially responsible,” which is another dimension that enhances the value of the
relationship for the customer.
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Measuring the Effectiveness of Relational Marketing Variables
Measures of the effectiveness of relationship marketing variables should include
individual or aggregate measures of customers’ relational behaviors: share of purchases,
customer retention rates or lifetime durations, purchase or usage levels, multi-product sales, and
so forth. However, the effectiveness of relationship marketing efforts will also be reflected in
measures of attitudes (e.g., service quality) and underlying predispositions (e.g., loyalty). For
example, prior research has shown that relationship marketing efforts can influence interpurchase
durations for goods and services (e.g., Crosby and Stephens 1987). Furthermore, the elasticity of
purchase intentions with respect to customer satisfaction is lower for organizations with high
levels of satisfaction (Anderson and Sullivan 1994), implying a long run reputation effect
insulating organizations who practice relationship marketing. In addition, more satisfied
customers have longer relationships with their service providers (Bolton 1996) and higher usage
levels of services (Bolton and Lemon 1997). Typically, as the duration of the relationship
increases, the benefits of the relationship increase for both the organization and the end user.
Ultimately, we expect the effectiveness of relationship marketing variables to be reflected in
financial/economic measures of the organization’s performance (e.g., market share, share of
customer and profits).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Relationship marketing in mass markets is a fruitful topic for additional con
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