Abstract

The paper examines how the fusion of Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship and relationship marketing brings about a new model of marketing known as “The Friendship Model of Marketing”. The ontology of friendship and the conditions of interpersonal attraction as expounded in Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship and relationship marketing creates the platform for the humanization of business practices. The paper argues that the non-recognition of friendship as the center-piece of business relation promotes the absolute formulization of brand-customer relationship in contemporary times. This oversight in recognizing the friendship ontological pre-condition of business interaction undermines the success of most business enterprises in Nigeria, which leads to social and economic stagnation. Against this backdrop, this paper combines the insights of Aristotle’s philosophy of marketing and relationship marketing to build a friendship model of marketing in order to position business enterprises to key into interpersonal attraction so as to connect brands emotionally with consumers. It argues that friendship virtues such as trustworthiness, commitment, honesty, integrity, empathy, altruism, and reciprocity form the ontological foundation for successful business engagements. The paper concludes that the adoption of friendship model of marketing in business interactions fosters a reciprocity of goodwill between brands and consumers and ultimately leads to sustainable business growth and development.

Keywords

Published in: Nsibidi:AE-FUNAI Journal of Humanities ( Volume: 2 , Issue: 1 , October 2023)

Page(s): 47 - 63

Date of Publication: October 2023

ISSN Information: 1596-5428