ABSTRACT
Relationship marketing has been one of the major paradigms in the marketing literature over the last ten years. In this time it has also had a major impact on marketing activities in the for-profit sector, being credited with increased customer cooperation, increased purchases and decreased customer defection (Morgan and Hunt 1994; Gummesson 1999). Traditional marketing has emphasized the importance of acquiring new customers (Gummesson 1997). Relationship marketing, however, has put a more overt emphasis on the importance of developing long-term supportive relationships with existing customers and posits that energy and resources are better spent on this group (Gronroos 1997) than on attempting to attract new customers. Several theorists have suggested that relationship-marketing activities would be particularly suited to the non-profit sector (Sargeant 2001a; Burnett 1998).
