The Internet — A fad or a fundamental for relationship marketing

It is recognised that deciding on how to deal with the Internet is one of the major strategic challenges that businesses face today. Within a short period, the Internet has emerged from being a niche medium used by a minority of individuals, to being a mainstream channel used by millions of people and businesses globally. Moreover, the Internet is being used to gain competitive commercial advantage worldwide, removing market and geographical barriers of entry. This study examines the attitude of business-to-consumer companies towards the use of the Internet in order to establish whether it is simply fashionable to use this medium or whether it is a fundamental for successful relationship marketing. To supplement a literature review a postal survey was conducted among all the client companies of Prime Response, a major supplier of database marketing software for customer relationship marketing (CRM). A total of eleven companies (31 per cent of the census) took part in the study. The research concludes by suggesting that the Internet is both a fad and a fundamental for relationship marketing at the moment. It is recommended that the Internet should be used as an integral part of a business's overall strategy and, as a channel, managed in conjunction with all other channels that a business uses.