Identification of Obstacles and limitations Implementing Relationship Marketing in the Public Sector Insurance Companies in Iran
Subject Areas : Jounal of Marketing ManagementM. Amirshahi 1 , M. Saffianian 2
1 - استادیار، عضو هیأت علمی دانشگاه الزهرا
2 - دانش آموخته کارشناسی ارشد مدیریت بازرگانی (گرایش بازاریابی)، دانشگاه الزهرا
Keywords: Relationship Marketing, services, insurance, Customer retention, Public Sector, Factor analysis,
Abstract :
In this era, service sector has gone through such a drastic transformation never experienced in its history. These changes has affected both industry structure and competitive situation. In this challenging environment of quick changes, service companies in general and financial institutions in particular are forced to change their reactions toward market factors: change their focus off their products and shift it towards their customers and competitors; change their outlook from short-term to long-term periods. Diversity and complexity of competitive pressures has inevitably forced these companies to welcome new marketing paradigm i.e." Relationship Marketing"(RM). Kotler defined RM as establishing, maintaining, and reinforcing strong relationships with customers and other stakeholders. This research is an effort to identify the obstacles and limitations in implementing RM in the public sector insurance companies in Iran. After a broad review of literature and other secondary sources on the topic, the researcher interviewed with more than 30 people who were experienced in the insurance industry in Iran. The purpose of the literature review and interviews was to identify the research variables (47 such variable in total) and to design the requiredquestionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was launched among 380 of the managers and specialized staff of Iran, Dana, Alborz, and Asia insurance companies, which collectively hold more than 89 percent of the insurance market in Iran in 2005. Factor analysis of those variables diminished them to 12 factors that were responsible for 64.5 percent of their variance. Research findings include a detailed description of those 12 factors and present a new model which encompasses obstacles in implementing RM in the public sector insurance companies in Iran.
