Authors
Joseph, U. E., Okpo, O., Ibrahim, A.
Abstract
The paper examines how Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship brings about a new model of marketing strategy known here as “The friendship Model of Marketing” in relationship marketing. The nature of friendship and the conditions of interpersonal attraction as expounded in Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship creates the platform for the development the friendship model of marketing. The paper argues that the nonrecognition of friendship as a center-piece of relationship marketing promotes the absolute formulization of brand-customer relationship in contemporary times. This oversight in recognizing the friendship condition of business interaction undermines the success of many business enterprises in Nigeria, which leads to social and economic stagnation. Against this backdrop, this paper combines the insights of relationship marketing and Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship to build a friendship model of marketing in order to position business enterprises to key into interpersonal attraction so as to connect brands emotionally with consumers. It argues that friendship virtues such as trustworthiness, commitment, honesty, integrity, empathy, altruism, reciprocity form the foundation for successful business engagements. The paper concludes that the adoption of friendship model of marketing in business interactions fosters a reciprocity of goodwill between brands and consumers which ultimately leads to sustainable business growth and development.
Keywords
Friendship, Relationship marketing, Marketing strategy, Philosophy,
Customer relationship
Introduction
It is a truism that entrepreneurship is the driving force behind the development of any country in today’s world. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important inputs in the economic development of a nation. Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which is a French word meaning somebody who initiates or finances business enterprises. This means that the entrepreneur acts as a trigger head to give a spark to the economic activities by his entrepreneurial decisions. The entrepreneur as a business leader looks for ideas and puts them into effect in fostering economic growth and development of businesses. Dhaliwal (2016) identifies the important roles entrepreneurship plays in the economic development of a country including wealth creation and distribution, largescale employment opportunities, promotion of balanced regional development, improvement in the standard of living, promotion of the country’s export trade, induces backwards and forward linkages, create social change, promotes capital formation, reduces the concentration of economic power, increase gross national product and per capita income, creating innovation, creates new businesses, puts new business ideas into practice. This suggests that the number and competence of entrepreneurs have a big impact on the economic life of a country. At the individual level, the competence of an entrepreneur is key to the survival of any business enterprise. This entrepreneurial competence refers to the comprehensive skills and visions required for managing a business enterprise successfully.
Content
In the global world of business today, marketing activities have become very competitive and enterprises are doing just about anything to retain relevance and still meet the ever-dynamic needs of their customers. Studies have shown that, for these enterprises to survive, they must take their marketing very seriously as people are now better educated and the global world of business today is a very dynamic one (Bradly 2018; Dwyer, Schurr and Oh 1987; Ndubuisi 2017). Thus, for an organization to survive in today’s competitive market, it has to treat the marketing part of its firm as a top priority. And, since the main reason for the existence of any business outfit is to satisfy the needs of its target customers at a profit and keep the business growing, it is imperative to develop a model of marketing that focuses on the connection between a product and consumer. However, many Chief Executive Officers of business outfits are disappointed over their inability to produce measurable results. Interestingly, they view their marketing department as not living up to expectations. More importantly, many marketing officers are struggling to identify new marketing possibilities to deliver their target. While companies unreservedly declare their wish to get close to customers, marketing seems to be far from this desired relationship with customers inspite of the fact that companies expend huge amounts of money to advertise and promote their products and services. The questions that are begging for answers are: what happened? How did marketers lose their influence? Why is marketing failing in its primary role?
Conclusion
The study has attempted within its limited scope to demonstrate the imperative of a friendship model of marketing for the sustenance and protection of the interests of both the business enterprise and the customers. Aristotle’s notion of friendship outlines the basic principles that give any business outfit a humanistic face. Relationship virtues such as trust, commitment, reciprocity, empathy, altruism are enduring basis for business relationship or any other form of interpersonal relationships. Thus, any business enterprise that builds its operational activities of these relationship virtues keys into the fundamental requirements for the sustenance, survival and success of its existence. The paper therefore admonishes business operators to see and relate to their customers as friends whose patronages are a product of altruistic engagement. And, in return, the customer inadvertently reciprocates the goodwill by an act of loyalty and unpaid source of advertisement.
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