RELATIONSHIP MARKETING: CREATING STAKEHOLDER VALUE
by M Christopher, A Payne and D Ballantyne, (Butterworth Heinemann, 2002, ISBN 07506483992, £19.99 [£23.55 inc. p&p*])
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE MARKET PLACE
by S Knox, S Maklan, A Payne, J Peppard and L Ryals (Butterworth Heinemann, 2003, ISBN 0750656778, £30 [£34.64 inc. p&p*]) or, for both books, £56.65 inc. p&p*
The authors of both of these books seek to explore the subject of relationship management, though their approaches differ. Martin Christopher and his colleagues follow what has been identified as the Anglo-Australian school of thought, emphasising the integration of quality management, services marketing concepts and customer relationship economics. Since the first edition of this book was published under a somewhat different title in 1988, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of the concepts it covers. The whole text is authoritative and well annotated, and it includes a sound framework and interesting examples. The approach of Professor Payne and colleagues, with their ?perspectives from the market place?, is more closely aligned with the American school of customer relationship management. Their view of customer relations is grounded in five processes ? strategy development, value creation, channel and media integration, information management and performance assessment. A chapter is devoted to each of these; but a greater share of the available space is given to case studies. In neither book can one find the arts treated explicitly, and none of the examples are arts related. Although non-profits are dealt with, both texts have been written with large organisations in mind. Hence there is little that is directly relevant to most arts managers, or to those involved with small businesses. Nevertheless, the principles set out are universal and only a dull mind would be unable to learn useful lessons from these texts. I enjoyed them and recommend both.
Review by Iain S Fraser, Lecturer and consultant, Dundee Business School.
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