For business markets, any marketing relationship management strategy should be

based ‎on establishing, developing, and maintaining a successful exchange with

customers. ‎Basically, there are three different types of relationships including
transactional exchanges, value-added ‎exchanges, and collaborative exchanges.
Transactional exchange is the simplest type ‎of exchange because it covers basic product
and it is more like a seller buyer ‎transaction. On the other hand, collaborative exchange
appears mainly in dynamic markets, ‎when transactions are more complex and prices are
higher. This kind of relationship could ‎be built when both actors trust each other, share
information and link their operations. ‎When it comes to value-added exchange, it is
located between transactional and collaborative ‎exchange. In another words, value-
added exchanges are those that companies target to go ‎beyond attracting new customers.
Value-added exchange focuses on how to keep customers loyal by offering
additional ‎services and promotional offers. This strategy has many positive impacts,
starting by ‎reducing serving costs, and ending with encouraging customers to buy more.
That is because loyal ‎customers provide 80% of sales, even though they represent only
20% of the total customers‎(Hutt & Speh, 2001).‎
Customer relationship management strategy is a model for achieving permanent
good ‎transactions with customers, offering customized services, and marketing
effectiveness. ‎That cannot be done without setting some priorities. Such priorities
should include ‎attracting the right customers, establishing effective working processes,
motivating employees, ‎and establishing the ability for a continuous learning
organization (Hutt & Speh, ‎2001).‎

4. ANALYSIS
4.1. FedEx and Network Perspective
In 2008,‎ FedEx‎ eauiched‎ a‎ campaigi‎ caeeed‎ “FedEx‎ deeivers‎ tr‎ a‎ chaigiig the
wrred”,‎ which‎ was‎ directed‎ tr‎ busiiess‎ tr‎ busiiess‎ market‎ (FedEx 2013). That
campaigi‎is‎regarded‎as‎reiitrrductiri‎rf‎FedEx’s‎busiiess‎ietwrrk‎sr‎that‎tr‎deae‎with‎
the complexity of the global community demand. There are five key themes that FedEx
is keen to root in partners including expansion, breadth of service, expertise and
innovation, sustainability, and education (FedEx 2013).The campaign defines the target
customers as those deciders within the procurement process for the array of

-3-
rrgaiizatiris‎whr‎partier‎ with‎ FedEx.‎The‎partiers‎iivreved‎ii‎ FedEx’s‎ B2B‎ market
are generally organizations, institutions and governments. They are located generally in
many different countries including the UK, China, Taiwan, Germany and Japan. The
industrial network model proposes three fundamental elements including actors,
activities and resources (Håkansson, 1987). In FedEx case, the actors are represented by
the partners involved in the business at different levels, whether they belong to the
corporate level within FedEx, B2B marketing as organizations, institutions and
governments, or the group of final customer (recipient). The resources maybe
represented by the dedicated transportation means through air, sea and land, human
resources, information systems, embedded technologies, offices and headquarters,
handlers‎aid‎rther‎ergistic‎equipmeit‎…‎etc.‎The activities in FedEx’s‎busiiess‎ietwrrk
may include the courier delivery services, the adopted protocols and agreement forms
between different actors within the network, and other activity cycles. That could be
general representations reflected from the case FedEx. But, the campaign may involve
specific details in which contribute to its ultimate goal. Such details are discussed later
ii‎FedEx’s‎CRM‎strategy.

4.2. FedEx Customer Relationship Management Strategy

That campaign represented a declaration of new business to business marketing
strategy. Since relationship marketing centers on three major steps including
establishing, developing, and maintaining (Hutt & Speh, ‎2001), this campaign could be
regarded as a trigger of establishing an access to new market of B2B with FedEx. The
main goal of this strategy is to meet the variety of demand of target groups and the
countries that FedEx delivers to. FedEx dedicates such efforts to enhance the
understanding of different sets of values and demands that each country has. The
information to be provided is the key of this‎ campaigi.‎ FedEx‎ thrrugh‎a‎ “3D‎ Gerbe”‎
facieitates‎iiirvative‎aid‎effective‎crmmuiicatiri‎frr‎FedEx’s‎custrmers.‎It‎is‎regarded‎
as a major point of difference compared to competitors. Besides, the advertising
mediums are produced in many different languages to more than twenty countries,
which reflects the interest of FedEx interaction to reach globally. Generally, there are
three main types of relationships (Hutt & Speh, 2001); the campaign addressed
collaborative exchanges with‎ FedEx’s‎ custrmers. That required increasing the

-4-
transparency in communication and mutual trust. We think that this type of relationship
is relevant to that type of business due to many reasons. Courier delivery services are
very dynamic, complex, and costly. FedEx as a high class brand could not take it for
granted that their partners deliver the values as intended. Thus, the quality of
performance and outcomes are very crucial to the business.
The main concerns that collaborative exchange costs trust and loss of
confidentiality, and the relevant switching costs are highly significant. However, these
concerns are not catastrophic generally in courier delivery services and particularly in
case of FedEx. The continual repositioning and adjustments techniques have been
followed to escalate the communication level of the brand. Furthermore, working
globally requires dealing with political unrest. FedEx adopted the strategy of hiring
local managers that understand the culture of local areas in order to avoid disturbing
inherent values and practices. This strategy proved its worthiness, as the exports jumped
300 percent since 2003 ‎(Hutt & Speh, 2001)‎.
The evolution of technology makes it difficult to be stuck to certain solutions,
especially for courier delivery services, where the technological innovation played
crucial roles in adding competitive advantages to its adopters. FedEx is also one of
those that use technology as a value proposition. The FedEx Institute of Technology at
the University of Memphis is assigned to develop and support the dependency on
technology innovation through 150 researchers. The mailrooms are designed so that the
operations such as tracking are sophistically automated. Moreover, the dedicated
ceieit/server‎ietwrrk‎is‎rie‎rf‎the‎wrred’s‎eargest‎ones (FedEx, 2013). Over the period
of the previous campaign, the most recently “3D‎wizardry”‎aid‎Wi-Fi networks systems
were incorporated as fundamental elements of the overall structure. In the current
campaign, FedEx exceeded the technological limits that others are stuck to. The
company introduced a 3D globe with use of a webcam that could analyse data and
produce statistics on the business world and update information on current economic
situations, in the all countries FedEx are located. The number of website visitors
recorded then successive significant increases. Moreover, for integrating easy social
connectivity to smaller businesses, FedEx uses social media to allow companies to track
their packages.

-5-