In this article the author Jeanne Bliss argues why the store owners should act more like merchants than marketers. The main difference between the two notions is the superficiality. For instance a merchant focuses more on one client a time while the marketer tries to reach as many people as possible. The merchant nurtures the clients a lot more and acts from the heart instead of the mind. You have to treat your clients as you want to be treated your own. (In the article Jeanne wrote many other advantages of being a merchant instead of a marketer. This can be very useful for are presentation/paper later this year) A research she performed for her latest book showed the figures prove her right. Companies who invest more in employees and customers grew sustainably in 2008, despite the crises.
The author of this article wrote a book about customer loyalty and she is the president of one of the biggest consulting companies in the world, serving clients as Johnson and Johnson, Costco and many more.
We should remember her name, because her work could be very helping in writing or paper and making or presentation the next semester.
Bob Dossche
I think that the difference between the merchant approach in contrast to the marketer approach for selling products is a good suggestion for a subject for our paper. Of course if we find enough research material, maybe I will try to find some more articles on this subject.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenFrederick Dobbelaere
In my opinion, this is definitely an interesting point of view for our paper or presentation. I will search for other articles with a similar approach.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenMeanwhile, you can have a look at the twitter page of Jeanne Bliss (http://twitter.com/jeannebliss). She posts frequently links to articles about customer marketing, therefore it could be worth having a peek at.
Annelies Martens