The Relationship Marketing Strategy in Competitive Market: A Case Study of Ethiopian Airlines Branch Office in Uganda

ABSTRACT The research was done to assess the Relationship Marketing Strategy satisfaction of Ethiopian Airlines (EAL), and the research used customer satisfaction and the airline’s overall performance as its measure. Purposive sampling technique was used to select sample respondents, and twenty two (22) Ethiopian Airlines’ employees and ticketing agents in Uganda were chosen purposely for the survey. Unstructured interview was also conducted with five (5) purposely selected EAL’s employees in Uganda branch office to gather the airline’s overall Relationship Marketing and Customer Handling strategy. Both primary and secondary data were used for the survey. Primary data were gathered directly from sample respondents through self-administered questionnaires. Secondary data such as annual reports, publications, and flight magazines were also referred to back up the analysis. The study attempted to assess the role of relationship marketing in Ethiopian Airlines customer Relationship management. The finding from the analysis of responses indicated that relationship marketing leads very highly in understanding customer psyche, address them better, building trust to customers and partnering. The study further shows that if the airline’s stated roles are done with utmost value by the management it will definitely lead to various outcome necessary to keep the business going and to have customers which are satisfied and which will eventually be trusting the company and possibly become partners of the business.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION A

DECLARATION B II

APPROVAL SH~~

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS VII

LIST OF TABLES Ix

CHAPTER ONE

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE 1

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND OFTHE STUDY 3

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 6

1.3 OBJECTIVEOFTHE5TUDY 7

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 8

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 8

1.6 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS 9

CHAPETR TWO 10

REVIEW OF RELATED LITRATURE 10

2.0 INTRODUCTION 10

2.1 RELATIONSHIP MARKETING 10

2.1.1 FUNCTIONALITY AND RELATIONSHIP MARKETING TO COMPETITIVE MARKETING 17

2.1.2 RELATIONSHIP MARKETING TO IMPROVE PROFITABILITY 18

2.1.3 RELATIONSHIP MARKETING BUILDS PARTNERING 19

2.1.4 RELATIONSHIP TECHNOLOGY HELPS ADDRESS ‘CUSTOMER BETTER’ 21

2.2 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION 22

2.2.1 MEASURING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION 26

2.2.2 EFFECT OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND RETENTION 29

2.2.2.1 CUSTOMER LOYALTY 30

2.2.2.2 CUSTOMER RETENTION 31

2.2.3 CUSTOMER SURVEY AND FEED BACK 32

CHAPTER THREE 34

METHEDOLOGY

3.0 INTRODUCTION

vii

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN ~

3.2 RESEARCH POPULX~ION 35

3.2.2 SAMPLE SIZE 35

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 36

3.3.1 TESTING OF INSTRUMENt 37

3.3 Data Analysis 37

3.4 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION 38

3.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 39

CHAPTER FOUR 40

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 40

4,0 INTRODUCTION 40

4.1 DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATIONS 40

CHAPTER FIVE 46

DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 46

5.1 OVERVIEW 46

5.2 DISCUSSIONS OF MAJOR FiNDINGS 46

5.3 CONCLUSIONS 51

5.4 RECOMMENDATION 52

5.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 53

REFERENCES 54

APPENDIX 1 58

TRANSMITTAL LETTER 58

APPENDIX II~ 59

RESERCH INSTRUMENT 59

A) QUESTIONAIP.. DESIGEND TO BE FILLED BY THE “ETA” EMPLOYEES AND “TICKETING

AGENTS”

(B) INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR EAL EMPLOYEES IN UGANDA 62

APPENDIX III 64

RESEARCHER’S CURICULUM VITEA 64