Customer relationship management applications in Turkey and examination of managers' perception

SUMMARY Customer Relationship Management Applications in Turkey and Examination of Managers' Perception Keywords: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Relationship Marketing, Paradigm Shift Information-based society is emerging in our time. This can be called a shift from "production economy" to "consumer economy". In consumer economy, consumers demand specific and private solutions, which to develop their abilities in growing number. This thesis aimed to analyze the 'statute of CRM' in the Turkish business framework. It also aimed to find the degree of a changing shift from national marketing approach and application to relationship marketing. The main research questions are set out to answer whether Turkish businessmen see the CRM as a different marketing approach or a result of traditional marketing approach; which sectoral factors affecting marketing strategy of business in decision-making process; how business manage marketing strategy in relation to organization and management structure and how the national profile emerged in this area. This research approached to the CRM applications not from demand (effect to costumers) rather from supply side (producers). It was found that only 29 percent of 700 corporations applied the CRM approach in Turkey. 17 percent of them have not started to apply this process. This indicates that there is only a small segment of Turkish business applying this application. This mainly stems from application costs of CRM which only big companies can undertake. Similar results have been also found in the researches conducted in the USA, Europe and India. IX