Criticisms of relationship marketing

Internal marketing and the six markets model has been criticized as not really being marketing at all. At the core of marketing is the marketing philosophy of first determining what the market wants, then providing it. It is doubtful that this is what is occurring in influence markets, supplier markets, recruitment markets, or internal markets. What is occurring is closer to public relations, persuasion, and management. It appears to be marketing because it uses some marketing techniques, but it would more accurately be described as salesmanship. Relationship theorists tend to compare themselves to traditional marketing. In doing so they frequently present traditional marketing in an unfavourable light. For example, Adrian Payne (1991) claims that traditional marketing concentrates on product features, has minimal interest in customer service, limited customer contact, and quality is primarily a concern of production. Although there may still be some marketers that think this way, these statements have not reflected marketing best practices for more than three decades.