S/M/36. A number of metaphors (including courtship, relationship and marriage) have been proposed to explain the shift away from managing one-off transactions in business to consumer (B2C) marketing exchanges to building, developing and maintaining a relationship marketing approach. Critically appraise the appropriateness of such metaphors, illustrating your essay with relevant examples from an organisation, industry or sector of your choice.

Relationship Marketing has been one of the hot marketing issues of the 1990s and early 21st century. This assignment explores the pluses and minuses of relationship marketing, contrasting it with transactional marketing, and also looks at ways of developing a relationship marketing approach. A number of metaphors (including courtship, relationship and marriage) have been proposed to explain the shift away from managing one-off transactions in business to consumer (B2C) marketing exchanges to building, developing and maintaining a relationship marketing approach.