Aster Mekonnen
Research student
Aster Mekonnen is affiliated with The Open University's Centre for Strategy and Marketing.
You can email Aster Mekonnen directly; but for media enquiries please contact a member of The Open University's Media Relations team.
Current research
Customer-service provider relationship dissolution: the case of affinity marketing
As consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and the market becoming more competitive affinity marketing is one way of adding value to products or services. It is believed that linking a product offering, with a cause or not-for profit organisation, in return for a contribution to the cause or affinity group attached will make products more attractive to consumers. The assumption is that collaborating with a known cause or organisation will provide stamp of credibility. Although affinity marketing concepts are gaining prominence in consumer markets there is very little work done on this area and there is no known study to date on the dissolution of customer-service provider relationship in the context of affinity marketing. Using qualitative methods to investigate, this study addresses the following research questions:
- What is the process of customer-service provider relationship termination in affinity marketing contexts?
- To what extent does affinity group influence the customer in the process of relationship termination?
- What impact does the termination of the customer-service provider relationship have on the customer-affinity organisation relationship?
Exploring this area is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is an opportunity to understand consumer behaviour in a triadic relationship from the customers’ perspective. Secondly, the study could give an insight as to how affinity relationship could influence the process of dissolution. And thirdly, service providers can be better informed to manage the relationship with consumers in such niche market more efficiently.
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