The Importance of Relationship Marketing Between Automakers & Their Customers

Currently the global market presents many different cars by well-known car makers such as: BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors, Ford, Honda, and Nissan etc. In order to maintain their products on the market, the companies have to conduct complex studies of their brand quality, in particular, reliability, comfort, durability, etc. Car is an automobile which is used to move from one place to another and normally for long distances. Most of the time, people also consider the convenience of having an own car rather than rushing to catch the bus on time. Wasting time is considered as wasting money. That is why today, cars are considered one of the basic necessities of many people, a lot of them cannot live without a car..

Based on the research results, the automobile companies annually develop new strategic and operational goals on improvement of their product quality and reliability for next three to five years.The product quality analysis is known to be based on the data obtained during advanced marketing studies of customers’ satisfaction. Following the obtained data, in particular, car rates by reliability are monitored, as well as complaints on characteristics of design, functionality, comfort, etc.

The automakers’ marketers receive the data based on the subjective perception of the products through a consumer, which greatly depend on an individual's features and requirements to their automotive product. Every person has, is and will continue to be consumer of some product or the other. Because of this, the study of consumer behaviour will be of interest not only to marketers but also to common customers and marketing students. An understanding of consumer behaviour will help the marketing managers to shape marketing strategies suitable to consumer needs. Most people regard buying a new car as a major investment and the final decision is usually made after careful consideration of alternatives. In making a purchase, consumers usually take several criterions into consideration.

Being aware of the dimensions that are crucial in the eyes of the consumer would enable car dealers to use their resources effectively. Therefore, the car dealers need to allocate their marketing resources in such an effective way that and it would result in an improved augmented product for the customer. Recently, many firms have emphasized the importance of relationship marketing and they have increasingly been devoting considerable attention to developing and maintaining close relationship with their customers, in order to create value by differentiate their offering and lowering their cost.