Relationships and technology: strategic implications

The customer relationship management (CRM) rhetoric is powerful and persuasive. The rhetoric typically positions advanced computer solutions as a way of implementing the relationship management ideal in mass consumer markets. However, this paper argues that the ethos of relationship management is a necessary cultural precursor to effective CRM. Moreover, in the absence of corporate-wide buy-in to the ethos, the implementation of suitable information systems can be fraught with political difficulty. Consequently, unless the ideal of relationship marketing is engrained within a firm or if a firm is unwilling to undergo the required cultural change, it is prudent for firms to drop the 'relationship' rhetoric and limit their focus to advanced database marketing.