Iacob C?toiu

English

Research Papers in Economics

Amfiteatru Economic recommends  AE 
 
Vol XI • Nr. 25 • February 2009  233 
 
MARKETING AND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT 
 
Iacob Cătoiu 
Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania 
e-mail: iacob_catoiu@yahoo.com 
 
This spring the thirty-fifth title in the prestigious collection The Marketing Library 
published by the Uranus Publishing House has 
appeared: Marketing et Gestion de la Relation Client 
(Marketing and Customer  
Relationship Management) –  written by Professor, 
Ph.D. Nicolae Al. Pop and Lecturer, Ph.D. Eva-
Cristina Petrescu. The book is a new work in the 
complex domain of relationship marketing and 
customer relationship management.  
Marketing et Gestion de la Relation Client (Marketing 
and Customer Relationship Management) is an 
original study that puts forward a new perspective on 
modern marketing, both through an insightful 
theoretical approach and through a practical method 
based on interesting and instructive case studies. The theoretical approach of the 
book starts from the idea that the marketing activity should focus on clients and 
partners rather than on products. Moreover, the idea that enterprises should focus 
on keeping existing costumers and encouraging consumption rather than attracting 
new clients is highlighted in the book. 
The book – written and published in French – is structured in three parts that cover 
three major topics in contemporary marketing: the way marketing has moved from 
transactional to relationship marketing, the key elements for understanding 
consumer behavior and the main characteristics of marketing research. 
Marketing et Gestion de la Relation Client (Marketing and Customer Relationship 
Management) is a pioneering work in the domain of relationship marketing and 
customer relationship management, a fact underlined by Professor, Ph.D. Virgil 
Adăscăliţei in the foreword to the book. Professor Virgil Adăscăliţei is one of the 
first specialists in marketing to tackle the issue of relationship marketing in 
Romanian specialized literature. 
In the first part, the book studies the way marketing evolved from the traditional 
transactional marketing to relationship marketing. Based on sound scientific 
grounds, the book presents and analyses theories in national and international 
specialized literature and suggests an original and realistic view on modern AE  Marketing and Customer Relationship Management 
 
Amfiteatru Economic  234 
marketing. The idea that modern marketing should be customer-oriented lies at the 
foundation of this vision. 
The second part of the book is dedicated to the study of consumer behavior, a 
central element in the marketing activity.  
The marketing orientation of any modern enterprise is based on – as required by 
the concept of marketing – knowing and forecasting changes in its environment 
and especially in its most important component – the market. This is the subject of 
the first chapter in the second part of the book. In this part, the features of the 
market as a meeting point for consumers and the company are presented and 
analyzed and fundamental ideas and theories related to the company’s orientation 
towards customers are put forward. This type of orientation has been determined 
by a series of processes specific to the contemporary economy, such as the 
globalization phenomenon, the increase of competition, the advance of modern 
means of communication that lead an increasing number of companies towards 
intensive development.  
The orientation of companies towards the customer is focused on satisfying clients’ 
needs and desires, and achieving this goal effectively has lead to the development 
of the Customer Relationship Management concept. 
Customer Relationship Management is a part of the management activity of the 
company targeted at achieving the loyalty of customers towards the company 
and/or the products, services and brands it offers on the market. 
Understanding consumer behavior is the starting point in Customer Relationship 
Management. Therefore in the following chapters the main characteristics of 
consumer behavior are analyzed and the decision-making process when purchasing 
a product is detailed. Special attention is given to the analysis of consumer 
satisfaction, to modalities of gaining consumer loyalty and to managing 
complaints.  
The marketing activity cannot be conceived unless there is a continuous and 
systematic flow of information regarding the internal and external environment of 
the organization and the dynamics of the relationship with outside parties. 
Information is a sine qua non condition, one of the primary resources for managing 
the marketing activity on scientific grounds. Moreover, the information is essential 
for ensuring the organic integration of the marketing activity in the system of the 
other activities of the company and also it is vital in order to have a high degree of 
adaptability to environmental conditions with a view to satisfying at superior 
standards the demands of the market and increasing efficiency.  In order to answer 
to these requirements companies need a key activity:  marketing research. In the 
third part, the methods and techniques used in marketing research to study the 
consumer and consumer behavior are presented in detail.  Amfiteatru Economic recommends  AE 
 
Vol XI • Nr. 25 • February 2009  235 
Conducting marketing research presupposes a series of successive stages in a 
complex process starting with establishing the purpose and the objectives and 
ending with the presentation of the conclusions and recommendations. Each stage 
consists of a series of activities that can take place at the same time or in a certain 
sequence. Conducting successfully a marketing activity involves doing a large 
number of activities which require making numerous decisions on behalf of the 
researchers. In order to accomplish successfully the research process knowing and 
understanding the stages is absolutely necessary. Therefore in the first chapters of 
the third part the objectives of marketing research targeting knowing the consumer 
and the stages of marketing research are emphasized. 
In designing a marketing research choosing the modalities of assessment and 
scaling of the phenomena investigated is crucial; hence the options regarding 
information gathering tools as well the modalities for analyzing them. In the fourth 
chapter of this part the scales used in the study of customer base are presented. 
Any marketing research implies not only solving problems regarding measuring the 
phenomena investigated, but also selecting the techniques and methods for 
gathering, processing and analyzing information. In chapters five and six the 
methods of creating instruments used in direct marketing research are presented, as 
well as the methods for analyzing results. 
In the book Marketing et Gestion de la Relation Client (Marketing and Customer 
Relationship Management) the objectives of marketing research related to knowing 
the consumer, the stages of marketing research, the scales used in studying the 
customer, as well as the rules of design, collection and analysis of information in 
qualitative and quantitative marketing research are clearly presented.  
The theoretical aspects presented and analyzed are explained by numerous practical 
examples, the book thus becoming a useful tool in marketing research and in the 
study of the customer for specialists and practitioners in marketing, as well as for 
students. 
Through the theories presented and analyzed and the scientific methods suggested 
for studying the relationships a company has with its clients, we consider that 
Marketing et Gestion de la Relation Client (Marketing and Customer Relationship 
Management) is a book that represents an important contribution to the 
development of modern marketing and to the improvement of knowledge in the 
field, thus constituting a notable reference point in specialized literature. 
 AE  Marketing and Customer Relationship Management 
 
Amfiteatru Economic  236 
About the authors: 
NICOLAE AL. POP - Professor PhD at the Marketing 
Department at the Academy of Economic Studies, 
Bucharest. Domains of competence: relationship marketing, 
strategic marketing, international marketing, international 
marketing research. He is Research adviser in marketing. 
Professor at the University of Applied Sciences of Bochum 
(Germany) 1996-1997. Visiting professor at  the University 
„J. W. Goethe” Frankfurt am Main (Germany), the 
Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), the 
University of Klagenfurt (Austria), ISCAE Casablanca (Morocco), the Technical 
University of Budapest (Hungary), the University of Trier (Germany), HEC 
Montreal (Canada), the University „Babeş-Bolyai” Cluj-Napoca, the Polytechnics 
University of Bucharest. He is Dr. Honoris Causa of the Oradea University and 
Director of the MBA program „Management antreprenorial” – in German – at 
FABIZ –ASE Bucharest. He has published 18 books and university courses in 
prestigious publishing houses in Romania and abroad. He won the „Virgil 
Madgearu” award of the Romanian Academy for the book „Marketing”, The 
„Encyclopedia of the year 2003” award of AGER for the book „Marketing. 
Dicţionar explicativ”. He is dean of the Faculty of Business Administration in 
Foreign Languages, ASE Bucharest. 
 
 
EVA-CRISTINA PETRESCU PhD in Economics, 
specialization marketing. She is Lecturer at the Marketing 
Department at the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest 
and Graduate of the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest 
(Faculty of Economic Studies in Foreign Languages) and of the 
University of the Orléans (Institut d’Administration des 
Entreprises d’Orléans). She is author of the book „Marketing în 
asigurări” (Insurance Marketing). She has published 10 books, over 35 articles and 
numerous studies on topics related to insurance marketing, services marketing, 
business to business marketing, marketing research, the study of consumer 
behavior. 
 

Marketing and Customer Relationship Management

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