Development of a Portfolio of Relationship Strategies

Development of a portfolio of relationship strategies

Diverse and well designed portfolio of proactive relationship programs are indispensable towards achieving strategic and powerful mechanisms for organizations that experience rapidly changing demands of attracting, satisfying, and retaining customers. Successful companies, such as IBM, experience unique competitive challenges. Differently, several product strategy initiatives work for all organizations aiming at developing market-driven products. The most significant initiatives towards achieving this are; recognition of the growth mandate, leverage of the business design, creation of strong brands, enhancing strategic relationships, achieving value match, as well as exploration of strategic relationships among . Notwithstanding the critical regards to pivotal products and supply chain enhancement, it is apparent of the essence of building strategies around relationship marketing processes and customer satisfaction.

The low-cost strategy is a key factor towards an intense relationship and significant market share. However, this will only be strengthened if IBM delivers superior value. Strong and enhanced interactive relationship with customers is a key foundation for a company’s efforts to serve customers’ unique needs, and, at the same time, profitably benefit the firm. Provision of superior value, coupled with service orientation and diversity, can significantly enhance customer loyalty, which has a positive relationship with a firm’s profitability. Also, IBM should purpose on increasing its reach (breadth), richness (composition), and affiliation (efficacy) to enhance its relationship with. Reach is a major factor to adding customer base, while richness concerns the depth and detail of the flow of information from the firm to the customer, which establishes a competitive advantage resulting from effective management of information exchanges. Enhancing a customer-centric approach through affiliation is indispensable for IBM to facilitate useful interactions with customers.

Reflection