Twitter as Gateway to Relationship Marketing: A Content Analysis of Relationship Building via Twitter

Abstract

Relationship marketing has been cited as an umbrella term for service sector marketing strategies and in marketing literature is considered a move away from finding ways to attract new customers to attaining, maintaining, and enhancing relationships with existing customers (Berry, 1995, 2002). In recent years, researchers have devoted considerable attention to studying the nature of the relationship between brands and consumers; however, much of the research has focused on marketing-related outcomes (Ashworth, Dacin, & Thomson, 2009). Bhattacharya and Sen’s (2002) research sought to understand why consumers enter into relationships with brands, and found that consumers seek out relationships with brands that “satisfy one or more key self-definitional needs” (p. 77). Gwinner, Gremier, and Bitner (1998) studied consumer benefits to engaging in consumer-brand relationships. Their findings indicate that consumers experience confidence, and social and special treatment benefits through involvement in consumer-brand relationships.