Relationship marketing is a corporative philosophy that aims at building and keeping long-term individual relationships with clients. In corporative and customer markets it demands cultural, strategic and operational actions aligned with its principles. This article describes and analyzes how big Brazilian companies are developing relationships with final customers vis-à-vis the theory-in-use recommendations. The results - obtained through 19 in-depth interviews - indicate that companies use relationship marketing in a partial way, having difficulties in all of its dimensions. Despite the fact that companies are aware of its importance, they are not able to insert relationship marketing into their organizational culture and strategy, putting more importance on operational tools. The article analyses the possible causes for the identified gaps, and suggests reviewing the relevance of the theory-in-use of this Marketing field.
relationship marketing; organizational culture; strategy; operation