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Relationship Marketing Effectiveness: The Role of Involvement

Article  in  Psychology and Marketing · August 1998

DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6793(199808)15:5<443::AID-MAR3>3.0.CO;2-7

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Relationship Marketing
Effectiveness: The Role of
Involvement
Mary Ellen Gordon
University of Canterbury
Kim McKeage
University of Maine
Mark Alexander Fox
Lincoln University

ABSTRACT

The term relationship marketing has been used to describe a wide

range of marketing tactics. In this article, three dimensions that may
be used to categorize these tactics are identified: personalization,
individualization, and continuity. Research is presented
demonstrating that the effectiveness of each type of tactic is
influenced by buyer involvement in the product category, although
the nature of this influence differs by country and gender. This
suggests that managers contemplating relationship marketing
programs should consider buyer involvement levels, and that
researchers studying relationship marketing effectiveness should
control for this variable. 䉷 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Companies are being encouraged to adopt a relationship marketing

strategy if they hope to be successful in today’s competitive environment
(Barlow 1992; Goldberg, 1988). It is clear that relationship marketing
is one of the most frequently used marketing buzzwords of the 1990s.
But what is relationship marketing, and is it always appropriate?
As with many buzzwords, overuse of the term relationship marketing
threatens its utility. Relationship marketing, used to describe market- Base of text

Psychology & Marketing Vol. 15(5):443–459 (August 1998)

䉷 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0742-6046/98/050443-17
443 Base of DF
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ing activities as diverse as strategic alliances and direct-mail market- Base of text
ing, typically refers to repeated, rather than isolated, transactions. Be-
yond this, usage of the term varies widely. Sometimes, it is used to
describe individualization of the marketing mix to suit particular buy-
ers. Other times, it is used to describe the personalization of marketing
exchanges. It is also used to describe loyalty programs. Morgan and
Hunt (1994) develop a definition that includes all of these activities: “all
marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and
maintaining successful relational exchanges” (p.22). They distinguish
relational exchanges from discrete transactions, but given the breadth
of their definition, it is difficult to think of many marketing tactics that
would not be considered components of a relationship marketing strat-
egy.
Given the confusion about the tactics that comprise a relationship
marketing strategy, it is not surprising that the situations in which use
of such a strategy is advocated vary considerably. It is difficult to think
of any situation faced by a marketer that someone would not deem ap-
propriate for the application of relationship marketing. The focus of this
article is on the circumstances that influence the effectiveness of par-
ticular types of relationship marketing tactics. The authors suggest that
relationship marketing tactics can be classified into three general types,
and that the relative effectiveness of each type is positively associated
with buyer involvement in the product category. Involved buyers are
more likely to contribute the participation required by many relation-
ship marketing tactics and to derive value from these tactics. Such tac-
tics may be perceived as invasive or annoying when applied to buyers
with low levels of involvement. At the very least, the tactics may be
ineffective, because an uninvolved buyer is unlikely to contribute the
effort required of them for successful execution of many relationship
marketing tactics. This article begins with a discussion of the literature
on relationship marketing and involvement, and presents hypotheses
linking these two concepts. Next, empirical research used to test the
hypotheses is described. Findings from the study are then presented. In
the final section, limitations, implications, and conclusions are dis-
cussed.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Relationship Marketing
The term relationship marketing has been used to describe a wide va-
riety of marketing tactics, with different definitions of relationship mar-
keting focusing on different relationships and different tactics (Palmer,
1995). For example, most would agree that relationship marketing can short
involve exchanges between a firm and its customers, but some would standard

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also include firms’ relationships with many other constituencies such as Base of text
competitors, suppliers, and firm employees (e.g., Gummesson, 1994;
Morgan & Hunt, 1994).
Descriptions of relationship marketing tactics can be categorized
along three dimensions. The first is continuity. Many consider tactics
such as frequent flier programs to be prototypical of relationship mar-
keting. They implicitly or explicitly suggest that it is the continuous
nature of the interaction between parties that distinguishes relation-
ship marketing from other forms of marketing (e.g., Gummesson, 1994).
Another dimension that can be used to describe relationship marketing
tactics is individualization, such as that which occurs in database mar-
keting (e.g., Peppers & Rogers, 1993). Those that see this as a distin-
guishing feature of relationship marketing believe that companies that
customize their marketing mix to each person’s individual needs provide
greater value, and hence achieve better results by capturing a greater
proportion of each customer’s business. A third dimension that has been
used to describe relationship marketing tactics is personalization. Those
who emphasize this dimension (e.g., Berry, 1995; Gronroos, 1995) think
personal relationships distinguish relationship marketing from tradi-
tional marketing practices. They suggest that the proliferation of prod-
ucts in virtually every category makes it difficult for consumers to make
distinctions among products, and therefore, view buyer behavior as
driven by comfort with the people behind products.
Contexts in which relationship marketing strategies have been ad-
vocated are as varied as definitions of relationship marketing. For ex-
ample, McKenna (1991) focuses primarily on relationships among sell-
ers of industrial products and between these companies and their
customers. Peppers and Rogers (1993) envisage relationship marketing
practices as being applicable to consumer products such as flowers and
cereal. Berry (1995) suggests that for a given product, relationship mar-
keting may be appropriate for use with some, but not all, customers.
The authors propose that product category involvement is a contextual
factor that influences the effectiveness of relationship marketing tactics.
Therefore, the next section presents a synopsis of relevant aspects of
the involvement literature.

Involvement
Involvement is most frequently conceptualized as perceived personal
relevance (Zaichkowsky, 1985). It has also been characterized as an in-
terest or drive and is considered a motivational state (Bloch, 1982; John-
son & Eagly, 1990). Involvement arises from a number of sources, in-
cluding utilitarian value, sign value (the ability to signal something
about the self to others), and hedonic or pleasure value (Mittal & Lee,
1989). Involvement can apply to a purchase decision, a product category, short
a brand, or a marketing communication. standard

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The effects of involvement have been investigated primarily in three Base of text
different areas: search behavior, information processing, and persua-
sion (Andrews, Durvasula, & Akhter, 1991). Research findings in some
of these areas are ambiguous. For example, in terms of search behavior,
some research has shown that involvement leads to increased shopping,
information search and evaluation of alternatives, utilization of more
complex decision processes, and greater ability to discern differences
between products on a variety of attributes (Andrews et al., 1991; Mittal
& Lee, 1989). Furthermore, involvement may interact with mood to ex-
acerbate evaluations of good or bad shopping experiences (Swinyard,
1993). Evans (1993) found that involvement increases the length of time
between purchase and repurchase, and decreases the rate at which cus-
tomers replace products, implying increased commitment on the part of
involved consumers. On the other hand, Belonax and Javalgi (1989)
found that involvement led to consumers considering fewer brands and
rejecting more brands as unacceptable.
With regard to information processing, research has shown that the
types of ads that are most effective varies depending on the level of
consumer involvement. When involvement is high, individuals have
been shown to devote more attention to advertisements, exert greater
cognitive effort to comprehend advertising, focus attention on product-
related information in advertisements, and engage in more elaboration
of the product information in advertising (Celsi & Olson, 1988; Petty,
Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). When involvement is low, peripheral
cues such as advertising execution variables and source effects are more
important determinants of how consumers perceive advertisements. In
low-involvement conditions, learning may occur without evaluation of
the information being stored (cf. Hawkins & Hoch, 1992).
With regard to persuasion, some inconsistency in results is apparent
depending on the theoretical framework. In the elaboration likelihood
model, involvement is associated with the motivation to process infor-
mation with the use of a peripheral route (Celsi & Olson, 1988; Petty et
al., 1983). Cogent, supportive arguments are said to lead to greater at-
titude change when involvement is high because of greater elaboration
(generation of thoughts and connections). Thus, high involvement in-
teracts with strong messages to elicit more positive beliefs about and
evaluations of products as a result of advertising claims (Gill, Grossbart,
& Laczniak, 1988; Muehling & Laczniak, 1988). Messages that are dis-
confirming, however, will also generate elaboration by the involved
buyer. Thus, involvement leads to stronger responses to messages, in
the form of an attitude shift, which can be positive or negative depend-
ing on the message. It is in the domain of disconfirming communications
where an alternative perspective, social judgment theory, has a differ-
ent prescription. Social judgment theory proposes that the function of
involvement is to motivate preservation of existing schemas and to dis- short
count disconfirming messages. Therefore, if involvement is high, the standard

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consumer is motivated to resist the message, and attitude change should Base of text
not occur in the face of disconfirming messages. If involvement is low,
the individual is not strongly committed to one point of view, and should
be more amenable to persuasion of any type or direction (Roser, 1990).
Another area that has received some investigation is the influence of
involvement on postpurchase satisfaction. Richins and Bloch (1991)
found that high-involvement consumers had greater long-term satisfac-
tion with a car purchase than low-involvement consumers. However,
satisfaction immediately after purchase decreased for high-involvement
consumers, and increased for low-involvement consumers. Recent work
in this area may shed some light on the connection between involvement
and relationship marketing effectiveness. Oliva, Oliver, and Bearden
(1995) have applied a catastrophe model to show that involvement can
interact with product performance to influence satisfaction and product
preference. Their basic premise is that at low levels of involvement, the
relationship between product performance and satisfaction may be
fairly direct, whereas at high levels of involvement, customers are sticky
in their preferences for products. That is, a highly involved consumer
may have a propensity to stick to an original, basically satisfied or dis-
satisfied position, over a large range of product performance levels, and
then suddenly, at some critical threshold, radically change his or her
satisfaction level. This implies a psychological commitment to a basic
position akin to the social judgment theory prescription of involvement’s
effects.
The above discussion leads to the conclusion that involvement engen-
ders an ongoing commitment on the part of the consumer with regard
to thoughts, feelings, and behavioral responses to a product. Relation-
ship marketing tactics that emphasize continuity may reinforce this
commitment. The literature suggests that involved people should be
motivated to attend to information about the object of their involvement.
Relationship marketing tactics that focus on individualization and per-
sonalization require this sort of active participation on the part of the
buyer, and are therefore unlikely to be successful when a buyer’s in-
volvement is low. In summary, involved buyers are more likely to value
the benefits of relationship marketing tactics, and to respond positively
to them.

HYPOTHESES

The literature described above indicates that involvement influences

the effectiveness of different types of advertising. It is also likely to
influence the effectiveness of various types of relationship marketing
tactics. The authors’ position is that the relative effectiveness of rela-
tionship marketing tactics is positively associated with involvement. short
When involvement is high, buyers are likely to welcome interaction with standard

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company representatives (personalization). They are also likely to value Base of text
an ongoing relationship with the firm (continuity), and to appreciate
customization of the marketing mix to suit their needs and preferences
(individualization).
Peppers and Rogers (1993) suggest that relationship marketing re-
quires collaboration between a company and the customer, yet custom-
ers are unlikely to collaborate when they are not interested in or in-
volved with a company’s products (Gronroos, 1995). Sheth and
Parvatiyar (1995) suggest that there may also be situations in which a
particular firm has no desire to collaborate with a particular consumer.
Low-involvement buyers fall into this category because a firm can expect
to gain very little by collaborating with such customers.
When involvement is low, relationship marketing may be ineffective.
For example, few people would value a salesperson engaging them in a
lengthy personal discussion (personalization) regarding their purchase
of breakfast cereal, a low-involvement purchase for most people. In fact,
many people would be annoyed by this. Similarly, consumers may view
a direct-mail offer based on detailed information about them (individ-
ualization) for a product they are not involved with to be an invasion of
privacy (Milne & Gordon, 1993). Continuity tactics may also lead to a
negative response when customer involvement is low, as the buyer may
feel harassed by unsolicited mailings, phone calls, et cetera from a busi-
ness they previously patronized.
Hawkins and Hoch (1992) suggest that consumers often make deci-
sions based on very little information when there are few consequences
associated with bad decisions. Low-involvement situations fall into this
category, and in such situations, relationship marketing offers little
benefit, and may in fact have detrimental consequences. In low-involve-
ment situations, buyers may be unwilling to exert a great deal of effort,
because a poor decision has minimal consequences. Most relationship
marketing tactics require some participation on the part of the buyer.
Therefore, at best, they are unlikely to be effective in low-involvement
situations. At worst, relationship marketing tactics may antagonize an
uninvolved buyer, leaving them with a more negative impression than
they had prior to the implementation of the tactic. More formally:

H1: The relative effectiveness of continuity tactics is positively asso-

ciated with product category involvement.

H2: The relative effectiveness of individualization tactics is positively

associated with product category involvement.

H3: The relative effectiveness of personalization tactics is positively short

associated with product category involvement. standard

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METHOD Base of text

The hypotheses just presented were tested with the use of a survey
instrument. Product category involvement and the relative effectiveness
of relationship marketing tactics were measured for jeans. This product
category was selected for several reasons. Prior research (Zaichkowsky,
1985) has shown jeans to be a relatively high-involvement product cat-
egory. Furthermore, given differences in interest in clothing and vary-
ing status consciousness, reasonably large variance in individual in-
volvement was expected. In addition, variation in marketing tactics
could be a potentially critical determinant of purchase decisions in this
category, because jeans are available from multiple sources. Finally,
jeans are a product purchased by survey respondents, who were uni-
versity students.
To determine whether results obtained would generalize across cul-
tures, the survey was administered to students in the United States and
in New Zealand. In each country, the sample was made up of students
taking introductory marketing courses at a university. The survey was
administered during class time.
Involvement with jeans was measured using the semantic-differen-
tial scale developed by Zaichkowsky (1985). The scale was pretested for
jeans to verify that involvement did vary. This procedure also ensured
that variation in involvement was not explained by gender or
country.
The relative effectiveness of the three types of relationship marketing
tactics were measured with the use of a multiitem Likert scale that
asked the respondents to indicate how their likelihood of purchasing
jeans from a particular retailer would be influenced by the use of par-
ticular tactics by that retailer (see the Appendix). It is important to
emphasize that this scale measured change in purchase likelihood in
the presence of particular tactics, not the behavior itself. A respondent
indicating they would be more likely to purchase jeans having been ex-
posed to a particular tactic will not necessarily do so.
As there were no existing scales available to test changes in purchase
likelihood in the presence of different marketing tactics, scales were
developed following the process described by Churchill (1979). Appro-
priate items for each tactical dimension were generated. In doing this,
tactics that had been discussed in the relationship marketing literature
were classified under one of the three dimensions (personalization, in-
dividualization, or continuity). Marketing faculty not involved in the
research examined the scale for face validity. It was then pretested.
Following the administration of the full survey, scales were purified
with the use of factor analysis, and their reliability was examined. Items
with low or mixed loadings were not used in the analysis. Summed
scores were used for the hypothesis tests described in the next short
section. standard

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RESULTS Base of text

Involvement Scale
Zaichowsky’s (1985) 20-item Involvement Scale was examined and
achieved an acceptable reliability (␣ ⫽ 0.96). The scale was tested for
unidimensionality with the use of confirmatory factor analysis. For the
model, the ␹2 was 274.70, with 149 degrees of freedom, for a ratio of ␹2/
df of 1.84. The GFI was 0.92, and AGFI was 0.88, which are acceptable
but somewhat low. The RMR was 0.034. These statistics indicate that
the overall fit of the unidimensional model is acceptable (Byrne, 1989;
Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1995). However, in order to achieve
this acceptable fit, a large number of error covariances were included in
the model. All the parameters in the model were significant, including
the error covariances, indicating that all parameters were necessary to
achieve acceptable model fit. The presence of error covariances, in them-
selves, is not reason to abandon the assumption of unidimensionality,
because such covariances often arise as a result of the use of parallel
methods in the measures, in this case, the use of semantic differentials
for all items in the scale (Byrne, 1989).

Relationship Marketing Tactics Scales

A 20-item scale was used for relationship marketing tactics, which was
comprised of three subscales: personalization, individualization, and
continuity tactics. The entire scale was submitted to exploratory factor
analysis that resulted in five factors. One item was dropped because it
was the only item loading on the fifth factor, and two items were dropped
because of loadings greater than 0.50 on more than one factor. The re-
maining items were submitted to further analysis, which resulted in
three factors. These factors generally corresponded to the three areas
posited in the design of the scale, and were named accordingly.
The three subscales were analyzed for reliability, and all showed ac-
ceptable levels. The reliabilities were ␣ ⫽ 0.88, 0.81, and 0.81 for per-
sonalization, individualization, and continuity tactics, respectively.
Summed subscales were used for the hypothesis tests, with scales cen-
tered at 0 and a theoretical range from ⫺ 3 to 3. The actual ranges,
means, and standard deviations for the three scales are presented in
Table 1. Note that means greater than zero indicate the general effec-
tiveness of all three of the relationship marketing tactics. That is, over-
all, the respondents deemed these tactics to increase their likelihood of
patronage. It is also important to note the large standard deviations
and the fact that the low end of the range of values for each type of tactic
is strongly negative. This supports the notion that the effectiveness of
relationship marketing tactics differs by individual, and that purchase short
standard

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Table 1. Ranges, Means, and Standard Deviations for the Relationship

Top of text
Base of text
Marketing Subscales.
Subscale Range Mean Standard Deviation
Continuity tactics ⫺2.500–3.000 0.809 0.862
Personalization tactics ⫺1.667–3.000 1.237 0.961
Individualization tactics ⫺3.000–3.000 1.698 0.992

likelihood for some individuals decreases in the presence of certain tac-

tics.

Hypothesis Tests
Ordinary least-squares regressions were used to test the relationship
between product category involvement and the relative effectiveness of
the various relationship marketing tactics, with each tactical dimension
serving as a dependent variable in a separate equation. Additional pre-
dictors were country and gender, and interaction terms were included
for gender and country with involvement. These analyses are discussed
separately for each tactical dimension. Intercept terms are not included
for the sake of parsimony (none were significant).

Continuity Tactics. The regression to test the effects of involvement,

country, gender, and the interaction terms yielded significant effects for
involvement, and the gender by country and gender by involvement in-
teractions. The R2 for the equation was 0.18, F ⫽ 10.71 (p ⱕ .001).
The results are presented in Table 2. Involvement had a positive effect
on the effectiveness of continuity tactics used in relationship marketing.
Therefore, the use of such tactics is associated with greater increases in
purchase likelihood when buyers are involved. In addition, there is a
positive interaction effect between country and gender. Continuity tac-
tics are most effective with females from the U.S., and the least effective
with New Zealand females. The interaction of gender and involvement
operates such that the involvement effect is ameliorated for women in
general. Thus, the overall positive effect of involvement is more pro-
nounced for men. These results support H1, and point out that the man-
ner in which continuity tactics may or may not be used effectively is
somewhat complex.

Individualization Tactics. The regression to test the effects of in-

volvement, country, gender, and the interaction terms yielded signifi-
cant effects for involvement, and the gender by country and involvement
by gender interactions. The R2 for the equation was 0.17, F ⫽ 9.99
(p ⱕ .001). Involvement had a positive influence on the effectiveness of short
standard

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Table 2. Regression Results. Base of text
Dependent Independent
Variable Variable b Standard Error t Significance
Continuity tac- Involvement 0.42 0.15 2.78 0.01
tics Country ⫺0.18 0.47 ⫺0.250 0.80
Gender ⫺0.36 0.49 ⫺0.736 0.46
Involvement ⫻ ⫺0.03 0.10 ⫺0.274 0.78
country
Involvement ⫻ ⫺0.21 0.10 ⫺2.21 0.03
gender
Country ⫻ 0.94 0.20 4.80 0.00
gender
Individualization Involvement 0.67 0.18 3.79 0.04
tactics Country 0.55 0.55 1.02 0.31
Gender 0.91 0.57 1.61 0.11
Involvement ⫻ ⫺0.13 0.11 ⫺1.10 0.27
country
Involvement ⫻ ⫺0.29 0.11 ⫺2.58 0.01
gender
Country ⫻ 0.48 0.23 2.10 0.04
gender
Personalization Involvement 0.38 0.15 2.53 0.01
tactics Country ⫺0.24 0.47 ⫺0.515 0.61
Gender ⫺0.05 0.49 ⫺0.109 0.91
Involvement ⫻ ⫺0.04 0.10 ⫺0.400 0.69
country
Involvement ⫻ ⫺0.14 0.10 ⫺1.44 0.15
gender
Country ⫻ 0.57 0.20 2.94 0.00
gender

individualization tactics. Therefore, the use of such tactics is more ef-

fective with involved buyers. However, the interaction of gender and
involvement is such that the positive effect of involvement is amelio-
rated for females — that is, the influence of involvement on the effec-
tiveness of individualization tactics is less noticeable for women than
for men. Furthermore, the effectiveness of these tactics across genders
varies significantly from one country to another. In the U.S. sample,
individualization tactics were more effective for women. In the New Zea-
land sample, the two genders were equally affected by this type of tactic.
In general, these results support H2, but again the specifics of the effect
are somewhat complex.

Personalization Tactics. The regression to test the effects of involve- short

ment, country, gender, and the interaction terms on personalization tac- standard

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tics yielded significant effects for involvement, and the gender by coun- Base of text
try interaction. The R2 for the equation was 0.12, F ⫽ 6.74 (p ⱕ .001).
Involvement had a positive effect on the effectiveness of personalization
tactics used in relationship marketing. Therefore, personalization tac-
tics are more effective with involved consumers. In addition, there is a
positive interaction between country and gender. The pattern of results
is similar to that described for continuity tactics. These results support
H3, and elaborate the manner in which personalization tactics may be
used effectively.

DISCUSSION

Our results indicate that, in general, relationship marketing tactics in-

crease purchase likelihood. This is true to a greater extent, however,
when buyer involvement is high. The results also suggest that culture
and gender influence relationship marketing effectiveness. Women from
the United States appear to be more favorably disposed to relationship
marketing tactics than women from New Zealand.
A complete explanation of the way gender, culture, and involvement
combine to influence relationship marketing effectiveness is beyond the
scope of this study, and will require additional research. In the interim
however, a tentative explanation is proposed. The influence of culture
may be attributable to the options available to consumers. The United
States is widely considered to be the most developed consumer market
in the world. Consumers enjoy a large and ever-expanding range of
choices in most product categories. Given New Zealand’s small size and
history of tariffs on imports, consumers typically have had fewer alter-
natives to choose from. This is still the case for jeans. Fewer brands are
available in New Zealand, and there are fewer choices of style, color,
size, et cetera for those that are available.
This leads to the tentative conclusion that relationship marketing
effectiveness may be influenced by the number of options available to
consumers. Perhaps, when there are few options available, tangible at-
tributes of products dominate purchase decisions, whereas less tangible
attributes offered by relationship marketers become important when
choice is plentiful. This explanation is supported by the fact that rela-
tionship marketing has gained prominence at a time when there has
been a virtual explosion in the number of options available in many
product categories in many places.

Limitations
One weakness of the results just reported is that they consider only
relationship marketing tactics targeted toward consumers by retailers. short
Although this is clearly an important context for relationship market- standard

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ing, it is not the only one that has been described in the literature. As Base of text
the earlier discussion indicated, relationship marketing has also been
advocated in business-to-business settings. Relationship marketing tac-
tics directed toward the consumer could also be implemented by man-
ufacturers as well as retailers.
Another related limitation is that the effectiveness of tactics pursued
by retailers may interact with the tactics pursued by manufacturers.
For instance, the Levi brand name and the relationship marketing tac-
tics the manufacturer pursues, such as its new practice of customizing
jeans to the measurements of individuals, may overwhelm any attempts
a retailer may make to differentiate itself with the use of relationship
marketing tactics. On the other hand, retailer relationship marketing
tactics may have a much stronger influence on purchase probabilities
for lesser-known brands.
It is also possible that there are interactions among the relationship
marketing tactics themselves. For instance, perhaps personalization
tactics are more effective when they are executed in conjunction with
continuity tactics because they may be perceived as more genuine. Store
personnel calling a customer by name after reading it from his or her
Visa card may not influence the customer’s future purchases, but store
personnel doing so because they recognize the customer might.
Another limitation inherent in this research is the way tactical effec-
tiveness was measured. This variable was operationalized as the extent
to which purchase likelihood changes when a particular tactic has been
undertaken. It may have been preferable to use a more inclusive and
absolute (as opposed to relative) measure of effectiveness. Also, an ob-
jective measure may have yielded different results than the subjective
one used.
The final limitation associated with this study is the relatively limited
explanatory power of the models. The models were all significant, as
was the involvement parameter in each model. This does support the
concept of an association between the level of product involvement and
the effectiveness of relationship marketing tactics; however, the low ex-
planatory power suggests that other variables are also important in
explaining the effectiveness of such tactics. Option availability, as dis-
cussed previously, may be one such variable. Another important vari-
able may be involvement with a particular retailer. Consumers may
respond differently to tactics undertaken by a retailer with whom they
are highly involved compared to an unfamiliar retailer, even if the prod-
uct category (and therefore product involvement) is identical. Involve-
ment with a product category and with a retailer may also interact. For
instance, a consumer who is highly involved with both jeans and Bloom-
ingdale’s may respond more positively to relationship marketing tactics
executed in association with this product by this store than they would
to Bloomingdale’s using relationship marketing tactics to sell other short
products or to other stores using the same tactics to sell jeans. standard

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Conclusions Base of text
Each of the three tactical components of a relationship marketing strat-
egy appear to be most effective when individuals are involved with a
product category. This suggests that such tactics should be used by re-
tailers stocking product categories for which general levels of involve-
ment are high and/or when highly involved individuals can be isolated
and targeted. It appears that relationship marketing tactics may reduce
the economic and/or social risk perceived by consumers purchasing
high-involvement products. For example, a consumer may perceive that
the high price they are paying for a custom-built home is justified by
the fact that it is being created exactly according to their specifications
to suit their lifestyle. Similarly, a consumer purchasing clothing for an
important event may feel more comfortable around salespeople he or
she has known for a long time and regards as friends.
These results seem to contradict the Sheth and Parvatiyar (1995)
assertion that consumers participate in relationship marketing to re-
duce their choices. Those authors suggest that relationship marketing
is particularly appropriate in low-involvement contexts, where many
choices exist. As indicated earlier, relationship marketing may be more
effective in situations in which choices are abundant; however, this may
not be due to the desire to reduce choice, but to the consideration of
additional attributes.

Managerial Implications
From a managerial perspective, these results indicate that relationship
marketing tactics are appropriate when product category involvement
is high, and traditional approaches may be more effective when involve-
ment is low. There is some support for this view in the literature. Gruen
and Ferguson (1994) suggest that in some situations, consumers may
view personalization negatively. Hawkins and Hoch (1992) found that
just repeating claims increased consumer’s belief in their veracity.
Therefore, for low-involvement products, it may be more cost effective
to repeat a nonindividualized, nonpersonalized claim with the use of
traditional mass media than to create an individualized, personalized
appeal. Similarly, Rothschild (1979) suggests that awareness is a criti-
cal determinant of low-involvement purchases. Therefore, a strategy in-
volving high-repetition mass media exposure may be more effective
than a relationship marketing strategy involving fewer, more costly ex-
posures.
Relationship marketing tactics may be very effective for product cat-
egories, such as cars and designer clothing, that are generally consid-
ered to be high involvement. They should be used with greater caution
in product categories like groceries, where buyers are often less in- short
volved. This is not to say that such tactics are never appropriate in such standard

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categories. It may be possible to use them effectively if some individuals Base of text
have high levels of involvement, and if these individuals can be isolated
and targeted. For instance, buyer’s club programs used by many super-
markets may not result in an increase in purchase likelihood for the
majority of consumers (although they may be a valuable source of mar-
ket research). Supermarket managers may get better results by iden-
tifying those with high levels of involvement with food, such as dieters
or gourmet cooks, and creating marketing programs targeted specifi-
cally toward them.

Future Research
Six suggestions for future research regarding relationship marketing
effectiveness are provided. First, replicating the current study in an
industrial context would be useful to see if the same results would be
obtained in this context. Second, expansion of measures of effectiveness
to include the cost of relationship marketing tactics as well as their
effect on purchase likelihood would enhance understanding in this area.
Madhaven, Shah, and Grover (1994) suggest that narrow forms of re-
lationship marketing such as individualization are less costly than
broader forms such as personalization, so even if broader forms are more
effective, they may be less cost effective. Measures of effectiveness could
also be expanded to include elements such as actual changes in purchase
behavior and/or changes in attitudes associated with relationship mar-
keting tactics.
The finding that relationship marketing effectiveness varies by gen-
der and country also deserves greater attention in future research. One
possible avenue for such research is investigating whether this is a func-
tion of the number of alternatives available to buyers.
Investigating the circumstances in which relationship marketing tac-
tics have a negative influence on purchase likelihood would also be an
interesting topic for further research. Although this issue is not directly
examined in this article, it was suggested that when such tactics are
perceived as annoying or invasive, purchase likelihood may be reduced.
The same may be true when tactics are perceived to be insincere, such
as when personalization becomes gratuitous or individualization trivial.
Another idea for future research is to examine the relationship be-
tween involvement and relationship marketing dynamically. This re-
search examined a static model in which involvement was exogenous.
It is possible that relationship marketing changes (or can change) the
level of involvement. Finally, Bloch and Richins (1983) identify two
forms of involvement: situational and enduring. Future research could
examine whether the two types of involvement have similar influences
on the effectiveness of relationship marketing. In addition, future re-
search could measure the relative influence of involvement with a prod- short
standard

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uct category, and involvement with a retailer or service provider on Base of text
changes in purchase likelihood associated with different relationship
marketing tactics.
This research clearly suggests that relationship marketing tactics are
not equally appropriate in all situations. The research agenda presented
above will help to identify the purposes to which it is best suited.

APPENDIX

Relationship Marketing Effectiveness Items

Continuity Tactics

䡠 I expect to purchase from the retailer for many years to come.

䡠 I have purchased the product from the retailer for many years.
䡠 I know the names of the store personnel.
䡠 I have purchased jeans from the retailer many times.
䡠 The people who work in the store are people I would like to have as
friends.
䡠 The retailer contacted me in the past after I purchased a pair of
jeans to find out if I was satisfied with them.

Personalization Tactics

䡠 I receive personal attention when I shop at the store.

䡠 The store personnel listen to my ideas/concerns.
䡠 The store personnel seem to care about me as an individual.
䡠 The store personnel speak to me by name.
䡠 The store personnel seem genuinely concerned about me and my
needs.
䡠 The store personnel are friendly to me.

Individualization Tactics

䡠 The retailer makes the jeans to my measurements.

䡠 I receive discounts based on the amount I spend on jeans.
䡠 I receive discounts based on how many pairs of jeans I purchase
from the retailer.
䡠 The retailer guarantees that, if I am not satisfied, I can return the
jeans.
䡠 I receive notification through the mail informing me when the brand
and style of jeans I indicate are on sale. short
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Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to: Mary Ellen Gordon,
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