Port Industry Related Relationship Marketing Applications

The changing dynamics of the port industry such as intense competition, more homogeneous services, technological developments, and changes occurred in the needs, wants, and expectations of customers have been raising the pressure for differentiation on port businesses. In these circumstances to develop competitive advantage, the importance of relationship marketing shows up for port businesses. Relationship marketing lies in adding the value that makes difference, especially when services and prices are similar among the competitors. In this exploratory research, the current relationship marketing (RM) applications of ports in Turkey were explored. Because the focal point of relationship marketing is to build strong relationships with special customer, the main question that is tried to be answered with this study is “How ports develop and sustain relationships with special customers?”. Open ended questions were asked to the 32 port marketing managers and answers were analyzed with content analysis.