The new marketing. What does 'customer focus' now mean?

Victoria Little and Richard Brookes

In recent years the traditional approach to marketing has been challenged by the new paradigm of 'Relationship Marketing'.

The new marketing. What does 'customer focus' now mean?

Richard Brookes University of Auckland, New Zealand andVictoria Little University of Auckland, New Zealand

INTRODUCTION

More than a decade ago, in The Marketing Imagination, Theodore Levitt (1983) wrote: 'The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.' It is a sentiment at the very heart of marketing, and one that is expressed by every management guru, from Tom Peters to Peter Drucker.

The manner in which it is now being interpreted by marketing academics and practitioners is not so clear however,...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands