By Elizabeth L. Boineau

In my efforts to tap into those frequent-flyer miles that seem almost impossible to spend these days (and in the perfect example of relationship marketing, which I’ll return to shortly), early

April found me winging over to northern Italy to visit my aunt, who teaches at Consortium Institute of Management and Business Analysis, a collection of 40 American universities offering an exchange program of international studies in undergraduate and graduate business courses. CIMBA spans two campuses just miles apart in the foothills of the Grappa

Mountains in the Veneto region due north of Venice.

Though my original intent was not to speak to the classes there (it had come up, but it was a vacation, after all), I was ultimately recruited by some great marketing minds who found their way over for a semester abroad as visiting professors. One was the department chair of communications at Purdue University and another a professor at the school of communications at Northern Arizona University. They and a handful of others, all sharp minds (and my aunt, of course), have great enthusiasm for marketing communications, formerly in their own professional endeavors and now for teaching it in the classroom. Even though I had decidedly left the marcom and PR topics behind for a short eight-day Italian escape, I soon found myself on the classroom stage.

The topics were familiar ones, easy to feel passionate about, and the students seemed eager to learn. One class was Intro to Advertising and another Global Marketing. The requested topic at the former was earned media — media relations, news coverage, making headlines — as a contrast to paid media, or advertising. The topic at the second was relationship marketing, ergo, the frequent-flyer program referenced above.

At the former, eyes opened most widely in discussions about how we use public relations, specifically media relations, as the lead card when building a brand. We reinforce with advertising, which intrigued the students since they were studying media buying. I suggested that media buying, especially on a limited budget, is often best done when trying to amplify and expand the reach of information that might have been sent out initially in search of editorial coverage as news or features in print, broadcast and online outlets.

Also, dollars spent in trade publications may sometimes, when well planned and executed, be leveraged when the editorial side of the publication or outlet understands what your company does and why it matters. This way, you’re able to better explore if there may be fit among the editorial pages, to go beyond just placing a 3-column-by-5-inch display ad.

I closed by noting that we build a company’s image and brand position with verbal (messaging) and visual (graphics) components. If we don’t have that message platform in place to help develop core communications about them, alongside a graphic look and feel to portray the brand’s personality, then we can’t begin to tell their story to various audiences.

And the more “foundation” we have, the more accurately and powerfully others can help tell their story too.

Taking that sense of energy and fulfillment, which full-time instructors must get a charge from most every day, I moved on to the next class to fall in line with their studies on relationship marketing. I started by telling them that relationship marketing may have evolved, but it was not born yesterday. I recounted my bank marketing career in the late ’70s to early ’80s (the height of deregulation in the financial services arena) when we were all about “cross-marketing” to better understand and serve the customer’s needs.

We wanted be the one to fill all of their financial needs as the laws changed and as we realized the economy of adding services to an existing client, far cheaper than seeking and landing a new one. 

I reminded them that relationship marketing targets an audience with more specific information on products or services that match the customer’s interests. The idea is to retain customers through various means in order to ensure repeat business. To do that, you must satisfy their requirements better than the other side does.

Long-term customers tend to be less inclined to switch, and also tend to be less price sensitive. 

The aforementioned frequent-flyer program, which in this case was Delta, may not be doing so much to cultivate “partners” amongst the coach class, but they are certainly an example of working their high-end repeat clientele, most recently with sumptuous meals and wine pairings by some of the most noted chefs in the country.

But are others vying for my attention? Yes, and that’s what relationship marketing is all about.

It’s pretty exciting to live in a country so rich with choices and to enjoy the affluence that we do, though it’s challenged of late on several fronts. It’s thrilling too to go outside our boundaries, explore the world and expand our minds, and the minds of a few eager students along the way. That, to me, is worth getting passionate about, in any language.

Elizabeth L. Boineau runs E. Boineau & Co., a strategic marketing communications and public relations firm based in Charleston. E-mail her at eboineau@eboineauandco.com.

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