ABSTRACT

The successful partnership idea of the Grohe Professional Club has a long-term nature, because only long-term and active partnership programmes can develop common interests and inevitably bring mutual success. The Professional Club was founded in order to take the necessary steps to create a dynamic loyalty programme in which all members are actively integrated. One characteristic of the Grohe Professional Club is that the principle of 'give and receive' is handled in an extremely open manner between the club and the members. Members capitalize on the unique opportunity to network with companies that are not their direct competitors. The club's relationship structure and benefits must be oriented to the prestige needs of members. Experience shows that new relationship marketing instruments and concepts such as customer clubs can be developed quickly within most companies. Relationships in business-to-business areas are mainly built on rational business decisions.