Not so strange bedfellows: marketing and total quality management Available to Purchase

Long‐term success of total quality management (TQM) programmes depends on initiatives which form strong partnerships with marketing activities. The objective of the partnerships is to integrate customer requirements into programmes. Analyses these relationships, based on information developed from extensive seminar discussions over a three‐year period. Concludes that the status of TQM‐marketing partnerships is highly variable, with respect to customer understanding. Many remain in their infancy, while others have matured well in a short period. For the latter group, marketing’s customer voice has become an expanding part of the quality movement to develop products and services that excite customers.