Relationship marketing in the agro-alimentary field

Abstract

In their development process, the organizations from the agriculture field may choose either a vertical integration or a horizontal one. Regardless of the strategy chosen, the long time competitiveness is strongly influenced by the organization’s capacity to initiate, maintain and develop lasting relationships with numerous categories of stakeholders (clients, suppliers, employees, shareholders etc.). This paper first presents the main characteristics of the relational approach in marketing theory and practice. Several authors consider that in the marketing’s evolution, the transactional approach represented merely a stage generated by the development of mass production and that nowadays there’s a tendency to return to the preindustrial relational practices. The particularities of the relationships that can be established in the agro-alimentary field are than analyzed, with reference to the to the six markets model developed by Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne. Christopher et al. consider that the organizations engage in relationships with their stakeholders on six markets: customer, referral, influence, recruitment, supplier/alliance and internal markets. We also underline the differences that might appear in the relational approach depending on the chosen development strategy (vertical or horizontal). Some examples from the Romanian market are offered. In the agro-alimentary field, the marketing relationships system presents several particularities related to the characteristics of the offer, the distribution channels, the supplier chain length, the government’s degree of involvement, the financing possibilities and so on. The development of a modern agriculture involves an amplification of these relationships and an appropriate relationship management is essential to the efficiency and effectiveness of the organizations’ actions.