ABSTRACT
It has long been recognised within the stakeholder management literature that value is enhanced through meaningful stakeholder relationships based on trust, commitment, loyalty and transparency. This resonates with developments within the marketing literature whereby the organisation-centric, transaction-based, buyer-supplier dyad focus of mainstream thinking has faced criticism for failing to understand the complex stakeholder networks that create and destroy value. Relational-based co-creation associated with relationship marketing, and the holistic approach embedded within stakeholder marketing, specifically address such criticisms. These represent an exciting new frontier for marketers. This chapter aims to add to the stakeholder marketing literature through the development of a marketing ladder of stakeholder engagement. The ladder of stakeholder management and engagement proposed by Friedman and Miles (2006) is reconfigured to reflect contemporary thought in relation to how a closer consideration of stakeholder management techniques can help to build trust and foster loyalty within the marketing function.
