An entended, community focused, experiential framework for relationship marketing

The application of the principles of relationship marketing in business-to-consumer markets has been a major development of the past two decades. Amidst mounting cynicism about some of the practices of relationship marketing, this paper returns to underlying principles and assesses their continuing validity in the context of a changing marketing environment. "Web 2.0" technologies have facilitated consumer-to-consumer consumption relationships. Increasing wealth has led segments of consumers to value hedonistic, experiential aspects of consumption. An extended framework for relationship marketing is proposed, which incorporates the effects of peer-to-peer relationships and hedonistic experience. The management implications of moving towards a broadened definition of relationship marketing are noted.