Relationship marketing also is changing consumer research which traditionally has focused on discovering average characteristics of average consumers.
Relationship marketing requires knowledge of single consumers.
Even data base entries on individual consumers fail to fully satisfy the three basic knowledge requirements of marketing. Marketers process information drawn from research, experience and their own subjective dispositions to create a marketing message. Consumers process information drawn from marketers' messages, experiences, and also from their subjective dispositions. Certain characteristics that define us as humans lead us all to process information in approximately the same way. Knowledge of these processes provides a dependable map to guide marketers in shaping and transmitting messages to consumers.