Search

The intellectual capital of a company has three components: the human capital, the structural capital and the relational capital. The objective of this article is to determine the role and the actions of the relationship marketing on the development of the intellectual capital of a company, especially on the relational capital. Relationship marketing is the result of a radical transformation of the marketing vision in a company, by moving the focus of its activity in the identification, keeping and development of good relationships with all its stakeholders. The implementation of the relationship marketing at a company level imposes a change of mentality at all decision levels. All these changes lead to the development of the relational capital of a company, which has become in the contemporary economy, one of the most important intangible assets of a company. After the conceptual clarification, based on a wide literature review, there is presented the methodological basis of a qualitative, explorative research, which was done in 12 multinational companies in Romania. The main objective of the research was the relation between the actions of the relationship marketing and the development of the relational capital of a company. With the help of a conversation guide based on a in depth semi-conducted interview, there were tested eight hypotheses regarding the way in which the managers of the Romanian companies understood the role and the position of the relationship marketing in the increase of profitability for a company and for the development of the relational capital of an organization. The results of the research confirm the fact the decision makers understood the role of the actions of the relationship marketing for the profitability of a company, but they see only punctual connections between these and the development of the relational capital. There are no operational instruments for the connection of the relational capital and knowledge management in the questioned companies. Based on the results of the research, in the end of the article there are suggested some directions for action for increasing the value and impact of the relationship marketing for the development of the relational capital of a company. These directions focus on the development of a systemic thinking, based on a medium and long term vision of a company as well as the creation of an appropriate organizational frame which should keep and improve its relational capital (data base of customers or other stakeholders, an efficient customer relationship management and a supplier relationship management, a complaint and reclamation management which should improve the relationship with the customer, a platform which should stimulate and gather new innovative ideas, results of the relation with the stakeholders of the company). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent dynamics of neuroscience is enabling and fostering the interface of this domain with others, such as: biology, sociology and economy. The complexity of market mechanisms in general and of the buying decision in particular increased considerably, demanding thus more sophisticated investigation instruments. During the last decade, neuromarketing has been in search of its own identity on the ambiguous field of market research. Starting from the works of Ale Smidts, the paper aims to position neuromarketing as an independent research field. The author reviews the different opinions articulated by specialists throughout the contemporary literature, emphasizing neuromarketing's capability of addressing the invisible side of neuronal connections that are situated inside the brain. Starting from Salovey and Mayer's definition of emotional intelligence (EI), this paper reviews the anatomical and physiological foundations of the brain activity that generates the EI. We analyze the neuromarketing concepts and instruments that enable specialists to comprehensively study people's unconscious reactions that lead them to buy or reject a product that could satisfy their needs. Thus, the physiological neuronal data acquired enables us to better understand externally triggered emotions and the way they interact in order to generate the buying decision. The whole approach is circumscribed to the relationship marketing framework that relies on creating, developing, maintaining and perpetuating interpersonal ties between all players in the market, in order to improve the image of a service, brand or company. We will look then at the difference between emotions and moods and analyze how they impact our behavior. Emotions are high-intensity but transient manifestations while moods represent rather insidious changes in our state of mind, changes that might or might not be easily identified and traced back to their origins. Neuromarketing research techniques (represented by electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), eye-tracking glasses (ET) and the galvanic-skin response (GSR)) bring valuable insights regarding the neural substrates of EI and allow researchers to seize the ephemeral interaction between different brain structures during the decision making process. We will further discuss the findings of our original research that studied the impact of packaging on consumers' emotional reaction. The research tested the impact of several elements of the packaging layout (color, shape, label and message positioning) for different packaging of competing brands in the honey market. The research was conducted at the Doctoral School of Marketing from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. The research results where later used in crafting the product-positioning strategy for several products from the company's portfolio. Conclusions and further discussion topics will then be inferred and detailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]