Strenghtening Outcomes of Retailer-Consumer Relationships: The Dual Impact of Relationship Marketing Tactics and Consumer Personality

Literature suggests that strong relationship outcomes not only depend upon successful relationship marketing tactics, but also upon consumer personality. Based upon face-to-face interviews with 246 visitors of a german shopping mall, reporting on their relationships with beauty product retailers, this study contributes to relationship marketing literature in three ways. First, we demonstrate that different relationship marketing tactics have a differential impact on the overall perceived loyalty efforts retailers are making (customer retention orientation). Second, it indicates that product category involvement as a personality trait underlies a consumer's intrinsic proneness to engage in retail relationships (consumer relationship proneness). Third, it reveals that the strength of relationship outcomes depends upon both customer retention orientation and consumer relationship proneness.