Committed Customers as Strategic Marketing Resources

Abstract

Customers' willingness to serve as marketing resources to the firm has been largely neglected by the relationship marketing literature. This dimension has gained greater importance to relationship marketers, due in part to the uncertain regulatory future of consumer privacy protection in the U.S. Our model examines the linkage between relational commitment to key strategic marketing resources and patronage outcomes, including actual customer revenues. Research findings support our argument for adding the dimension of strategic marketing resources to existing CLV models to more fully capture customer equity.

Key Words:

• Relational commitment
• relationship marketing
• customer lifetime value