“Employing marketing mix to increase the efficiency of CRM within organic products marketers in Jordan”

Marketing mix appeared to be one of the most influential approaches on the marketing plans in the organizations. The current study seeks to examine the influence of marketing mix (4Ps – promotion, price, place and product) on the efficiency of CRM (responsiveness, empathy, customer relations, assurance and reliability) within the organic products market in Jordan. The researcher employed the quantitative approach through distributing a questionnaire on total of 37 individuals who were involved in the marketing field of organic products. The results of the study indicated that marketing mix appeared to have an influence of the efficiency of CRM practices within the marketing of organic goods in Jordan. The most influential variable appeared to be the price, which is considered to be high for organic product in Jordan, and that is why customer tend to avoid such product. Following the price came the variable of product, which was important as customers tend to give much emphasis on the specifications of the product and the fact that it is healthy and organic tends to appeal them regardless of the price. The study recommended increasing the level of awareness regarding organic products marketing strategies among the marketing managers in Jordan.


INTRODUCTION
Marketing is considered to be one of the most important activities that take place within the organization. Basically, marketing helps in focusing the managers' attention towards following and supervising the activities that take place within the organization. It helps in managing the way the organization deals with customers being the main source of income in the organization. According to Katana (2014), marketing plans have the power to change the way the mental image of the organization, not to mention its role in influencing the operations within the organization. Pungnirund (2013) argues that there appeared a concept within the marketing field that is called the marketing mix, Pungnirund (2013) defined marketing mix as a group of tools, concepts, activities and decisions that the organization employs in order to promote its goods and services. On the other hand, Singh (2012) defined marketing mix as the "The combination of different marketing decision variables being used by the firm to market its goods and services" (Išoraitė, 2016, p. 25).

Problem statement
The idea of marketing mix has an influence on many activities within the organization. Many researchers appeared to have opinions con-cerning the influence of marketing mix on the operations within the organizations (Sulaiman, Abdullah, & Ridzuan, 2014). Chumaidiyah (2014) argued that marketing mix has an influence on the competitive advantage on the organization, Wahab and Abu Hassan (2015) spoke of the influence of marketing mix on the customer satisfaction which eventually leads to customer loyalty, and Cheserem (2016) came along to support that idea of the influence of marketing mix on the loyalty of customers. Katana (2014), on the other hand, supported the influence of marketing mix on the customer behavior and purchasing decisions. Moghaddam and Foroughi (2012) stated that marketing mix can influence the market share of the organization. Brei, d'Avila, Camargo, and Engels (2011) reached the results that support the influence of marketing mix on the performance of the organization. Based on the aforementioned argument, the current study tries to examine the influence of marketing mix on the CRM practices and strategies of the organization. The study takes into consideration the four Ps of the marketing mix, which include place, product, promotions and price and its influence on the CRM practices, which include reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and customer relations within the organization among organic products marketers in Jordan.
In developing the theoretical frame of the study, the researcher employed the CRM strategies, which appeared and were mentioned by Osunde (2014), Al Dalayeen (2017).

Hypotheses of the study
The current study hypothesizes the following: Main hypothesis: There is a positive influence of marketing mix (place, product, promotions and price) on the CRM practices (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and customer relations) among organic products marketers in Jordan.

Sub-hypotheses:
• marketing mix has a positive influence on the responsiveness among organic products marketers in Jordan; • marketing mix has a positive influence on the assurance among organic products marketers in Jordan; • marketing mix has a positive influence on the empathy among organic products marketers in Jordan; • marketing mix has a positive influence on the customer relations among organic products marketers in Jordan; • marketing mix has a positive influence on the reliability among organic products marketers in Jordan.

Figure 1.
Model of the study Marketing mix 4 Ps CRM practices

Marketing mix
Marketing mix is stemmed from the single P (price) of microeconomic hypothesis. McCarthy (1964) offered the "marketing mix", regularly alluded to as the "4Ps -price, product, promotion and place", as methods for making an interpretation of marketing arranging into training. Marketing mix isn't a logical hypothesis as highlighted by Goi (2009), however, only an applied structure that recognizes the central basic leadership management make in arranging their marketing strategies to suit customers' needs. The apparatuses can be utilized to create both long-term relations with customers in a way that may be for the benefit of the organization. The possibility of the marketing mix is an indistinguishable thought from when mixing a cake.
A bread cook will change the extents of fixings in a cake contingent upon the kind of cake he wishes to prepare. The extents in the marketing mix can be adjusted similarly and contrast from item to item. The marketing mix management worldview has overwhelmed advertising tools and techniques, since it was presented in 1940s (Kasabov, 2015). According to Goi (2009), marketing mix is defined as "the combination of all of the factors at a marketing manager's command to satisfy the target market" (p. 3) while Borden (1964) long defined it as the set of variables that an organization chose to control in order to interfere with the customers' purchasing decision and change its destination into the benefit of the organization.
Many researchers have spoken of the idea of marketing mix and its variables (4 Ps), which mainly refer to the following:

Price
Price doesn't only refer to the income that the organization may reach through selling and promoting service and product, it also refers to the cost that the customer has to bear in order to get the needed service (Hisham & Hamzah, 2013).

Place
Place here refers to the distribution of the products and services through the physical and non-physi-cal channels. According to Goi (2009), the place influences the turnout of customers towards purchasing a certain item or product.

Product
The product itself is the main attraction of customers, the degree of development that organizations apply on their products in order to suit their needs and the continuous development in the market may also influence to what degree customers are willing to purchase the product.

Promotion
The idea of promotion as a part of the 4Ps in the marketing mix refers to the group of communication strategies and tools that an organization employs in its marketing plans in order to deliver the message to the target segment of the customers. Promotion includes the tools of the public relations, sales forces, sales promotion and direct marketing (Rad et al., 2014).

CRM
The idea of CRM has developed over some time through an arrangement of activities, which have been coordinated towards enhancing business performance. CRM is an administration system that empowers an association to wind up client centered, create more grounded associations with its demographic and support the promotional aspect of the organization's products and services. It helps sort out data about clients, deals, advertising viability, responsiveness and advertise patterns.
In the present, CRM can be considered as the extreme answer for the clients and the associations. It has been demonstrated that connections at last characterize all measurements of an association's aggressiveness: its system, way of life, strategies, development, productivity, and evaluation. CRM is a proactive administration methodology that is driven by an emphasis on benefit (Jayashree, Shojaee, & Pahlavanzadeh, 2011).
Chen and Popovich (2003) defined CRM as "a combination of people, processes and technology that seeks to understand a company's customers; It is an integrated approach to managing relationships by focusing on customer retention and relationship development" (p. 2). Mohammad and Rashed (2012), on the other hand, believed that "establishing a sustainable relationship with customers is the cornerstone for obtaining loyal customers who are much more profitable than non-loyal ones" (p. 220). Sorayaei et al. (2014) argued that CRM considers clients not as strangers but rather as insiders to the business and intends to fabricate a long-term association with them. A high level of client contact, duty and management are along these lines basic highlights of CRM. From the time Henry Ford created large scale manufacturing, the attention has been on expanding production and decreasing unit costs. The concentration was on adhering to details of the product, and the management structures ordinarily lined up with product offerings and with item benefit and misfortune. Soliman (2011) defined CRM as "method of understanding the customer behavior through intense communication with him/her to improve the performance which is represented in attracting the customer, keeping him/her and increasing his/ her loyalty and profitability" (p. 167). According to Mohammad et al. (2014), CRM is an on-going procedure of recognizing and making new relations clients and after that sharing the advantages of this over a lifetime of affiliation. It includes the understanding, concentrating and administration of on-going coordinated effort amongst providers and chosen clients for common esteem creation and sharing through reliance and hierarchical arrangement.
Also, Lindgreen and Shergill (2001) saw that the client is fundamental to any CRM activity. Presently, here we need to unmistakably recognize the client and shopper, as we tend to utilize these terms conversely. The client is the retailer, wholesaler, exchanger, while the shopper is the end-client of the item or administration. Both need break even with consideration of the organization. The clients' experience with the organization's workers can represent the deciding moment of a relationship and at last influence gainfulness, as CRM goes past unimportant fulfillment to responsibility.

CRM practices and strategies
The thoughts and standards of CRM can be followed to the essential idea of Client Focus of TQM. Henceforth, clients are the most essential resourc-es of any association and client center has turned into the basic objective for the association. Cost of drawing in another client is five times that of holding a fulfilled current client. CRM is a key part of holding the existing clients and winning new ones. Concentrating on client connections is accordingly a venture (Krasnikov, Jayachandran, & Kumar, 2009).
Many researchers have spoken of what can constitute the idea of CRM or what can the organization expect from applying CRM strategies and practices. In an overall research, it was found out that mostly five variables may have the ability to form the whole framework of the CRM practices in the organization. In another meaning, the variables, which constitute the framework of CRM are basically the same variables, which are related to the idea of service quality management, bearing in mind that the service quality level is the first and most important determinant of customer relationship management as according to Othman and Owen (2001), Dalayeen (2017), Prakoso (2017).

Responsiveness
The concept of responsiveness in CRM refers to the ability of the organization to present prompt services for the customers at the time they are needed. According to Selvakumar (2015), responsiveness of the organization is very helpful in reaching a good degree of customer satisfaction and it also helps in managing customer relations in a well-built approach, given that it is based on presenting the service to the customer in a good quality, without inconvenience and with giving the customer the full attention.

Assurance
Many definitions have come to appear regarding the concept of assurance, according to Agbor (2011), assurance is the possession of the basics of courtesy, etiquette and professionalism among employees in dealing with the customers. According to Cheserek, Kimwolo, and Cherop (2015), it was defined as the ability of employees to gain the customers trust and confidence through their possession of some of the important manners. However, it is seen that both definitions address each other in referring to the way employees approach customers and to what extent the employees of the organization have the ability to follow a certain etiquette code in dealing with the customer in a way that guarantees their satisfaction. On the CRM level, assurance helps in giving employees an approach to deal with the customer in a way that helps in managing the relationship between them and the organization.

Empathy
Empathy in CRM refers to a type of service quality dimension were employees in an organization have the ability to deal, address and approach the customers individually and give them their full attention and care through the process of dealing with them (Muala, 2016). In that sense, Al Dalayeen (2017) sees that empathy is all about being aware of the customers' expectations and being able to meet them, it is basically an approach that addresses customers as insiders not outsiders, meaning they are part of the organization and the employees have the ability to understand their needs individually and get them the service they expect.

Customer relations
Agbor (2011) defined customer relations as the organization's ability to deliver a service to customers that is superior to the service that is presented by competitors. It means that the organization should manage their customers' relations through being aware of the nature of the same service that being presented by other competitors, their marketing strategies and plans, their CRM approaches and the way the deal with their customers. Selvakumar (2015) sees that customers relations is one of the most important CRM strategies that helps in increasing the competitive advantage of the organization, which leads to customer satisfaction; reaching customer satisfaction is a result of a good CRM. On the other hand, Al-Azzam (2017) referred to the idea of customer relations as in reference to the so called 'Customer Knowledge', which refers to "A dynamic combination of experience, value and insight information which is analyzed, interpreted, and converted to know how to exchange of knowledge between business organizations and their customers" (p. 183).

Reliability
The concept of reliability refers to the organizations' ability to deliver the service to customers as promised in a good quality, accurate time and with individual attention to each customer's needs (Al- Dalayeen, 2017). According to Munusamy, Chelliah, and Wainun (2010), reliability is not only being able to deliver the service as promised to the customer; it goes beyond that, it involves getting the service done in high quality from the first time in order to reduce the cost of time, in addition to that, it is about being able to solve any problem that appears through the time of delivering the service, deal with this problem and solve it without having the customer sensing anything wrong. Not to mention the ability to maintain an errors free record in terms of delivering services to the customers.

Marketing mix and CRM practices and strategies
In the present, very aggressive business world CRM can be considered as a definitive answer for both clients and organizations. It has been demonstrated that connections at last characterize all measurements of an organizations' aggressiveness: its technique, its way of life, its strategies, and its market share, not to mention its development, its income, and its evaluation. CRM is a proactive management system that is driven by an attention on benefit. CRM considers clients not as outsiders but rather as insiders to the business and intends to assemble a long-term association with them. A high level of client contact, responsibility and administrations are accordingly basic highlights of CRM.
According to Ramakrishnan (2006), the components of marketing mix (place, price, promotion and product) have an influence on the overall mental image that customers have regarding a certain brand or organization. Having this mental image built and updated, it is important now to deal with the people who hold this mental image -customers -and that is how the connection between marketing mix and CRM appears. Basically what happens is that marketing mix components attract the clients into paying attention to the product/service that an organization presents. After that, once the organization has the customers' attention, it is now important to take the needed steps into managing the customers' affair in order to guarantee their continuous dealing with the organization and at the same time be able to attract potential customers.

METHODOLOGY
The following section presented the methodological approaches' details, techniques and tools, which helped in developing the current study and gather the needed raw data for analysis.

Methodological approach
A quantitative approach will be followed in the current study in order to have the ability to either reject or accept the aforementioned hypotheses on which the current study was built. Basically, the quantitative approach is built on the retrieval of numbers and numerical data, which can be read and translated into words related to the main problem of the study. The quantitative approach in the current study gives it a deductive orientation, which refers to the process of developing a set of hypotheses from an already existing theory (Soiferman, 2010).

Tools of the study
Realizing the main aim of the study through the quantitative approach oriented the research towards employing the questionnaire as the main tool of the study. The questionnaire was built by the researcher; it consisted of two main parts where the first takes into account the demographic variables, while the other part involves the variables of the study as according to the model in Figure 1. The questionnaire was built based on Likert 5-point scale (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree).

Population and sample
The population of the study refers to the human factor that forms the study and its interest. The population of the current study was all organic products markets in Jordan. The population wasn't that big given that the idea of organic products isn't that familiar yet in the country. However, the researcher has chosen a convenient sample of organic products marketers in Jordan, which included marketing managers from shops, which promote for organic products. The number of the sample in its final stage reached 44 marketing managers in 44 different organic products shops and centers in the Jordanian capital Amman.
After the application process, the researcher was able to retrieve 37 properly filled questionnaires, which gave a response rate of 84%, which is statistically acceptable.

Statistical processing
The following statistical processes were used in order to analyze the generated data of the study.

RESULTS
The current section presented the statistical analysis of the gathered data, which were employed to answer the questions of the study. The section is divided into two parts, the first took into account the demographic variables, while the other presented the sample answers to the paragraphs of the study.  Table 1, it appeared that the majority of the sample, which answered the questions of the study, was males with a percentage of 54.1% and a frequency of 20 individuals. On the other hand, 45.9% of the sample was females with a frequency of 17 individuals. This result shows that more than half of the sample was males and gives an indication that the majority of workers within the chosen organizations were males more than females.  Table 2 indicated that the majority of the sample, which answered the questionnaire, was within the experience of 10-13 years with a percentage of 32.4% and a frequency of 12 individuals, followed by individuals who enjoyed an experience of more than 14 years with a percentage of 29.7% and a frequency of 11 individuals. The results indicated that the sample of the study had the needed experience range to answer the questionnaire, but at the same time within a fairly young age that can help them in understanding the recent updates within the field of marketing.  Table 3 shows the sample characteristics according to the variable of position; it was found out that 73% of the sample was individuals who represented an organic brand within the Jordanian market. The results indicated that individuals who were involved in the organic brands market were more understanding and participating in the questionnaire compared to marketing managers (18.9%) and sales managers (8.1%).

Paragraphs of the study
Examining Table 4, it can be seen that there is a positive attitude from participants towards the above variables. This appeared through the mean of the paragraphs, which scored higher than 3.00 referring to the paragraph as a good indicator and there appeared no paragraphs, which were taken in a negative way by the participants. This is considered to be a good indication on the internal consistency of the questionnaire paragraphs and the degree of the paragraphs fitting the concept of the study as a whole.
It is worth to mention here that price came in the first rank of having a positive attitude with a mean of 4.14 referring to it as the strongest variable of all; followed by the variable of product, which scored the second rank with a mean of 4.11 as an influencer on the answers of the sample within the questionnaire.

Hypotheses testing
Main hypothesis: Marketing mix has a positive influence on the CRM practices among organic products marketers in Jordan.  Multiple regression was used to test this hypothesis, it was found that R (0.581) is the correlation between the marketing mix variables and the CRM practices variable. Also, it was found that the F-value of 4.079 is significant at 0.05 level. Thus, there is a statistically significant influence of marketing mix on the CRM practices within the organization.
The following presented the testing of the sub-hypotheses.

Responsiveness
Marketing mix has a positive influence on the responsiveness among organic products marketers in Jordan.  Multiple regression was used to test this hypothesis, it is found that R (0.511) is the correlation between the marketing mix variables and the responsiveness variable. Also, it was found that the F-value of 2.832 is significant at 0.05 level. Thus, there is a statistically significant influence of marketing mix on the responsiveness variable of CRM.

Assurance
Marketing mix has a positive influence on the assurance among organic products marketers in Jordan.  Multiple regression was used to test this hypothesis, it was found that R (0.572) is the correlation between marketing mix variables and the assurance variable. Also, it is found that the F-value of 3.9 is significant at 0.05 level. Thus, there is a statistically significant influence of marketing mix on assurance.

Empathy
Marketing mix has a positive influence on the empathy among organic products marketers in Jordan. Multiple regression was used to test this hypothesis, it is found that R (0.542) is the correlation between marketing mix variables and empathy variable. Also was found that the F-value of 3.331 is significant at 0.05 level. Thus, there is a statistically significant influence of marketing mix on empathy variable.

Customer relations
Marketing mix has a positive influence on the customer relations among organic products marketers in Jordan.  Multiple regression was used to test this hypothesis, it is found that R (0.51) is the correlation between marketing mix variables and customer relations variable. Also, it was found that the F-value of 2.819 is significant at 0.05 level. Thus, there is a statistically significant influence of marketing mix variables on the customer relations variable.

Reliability
Marketing mix has a positive influence on the reliability among organic products marketers in Jordan. Multiple regression was used to test the main hypothesis, it was found that R (0.709) was the correlation between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Also, it was found that the F-value of 8.085 is significant at 0.05 level. Thus, there is a statistically significant influence of marketing mix variables on the reliability variable. A reliability test was carried out using Cronbachs' alpha. The result showed a value of 0.961 for the all items, as well as alpha for each variable, is greater than accepted percent 0.60, which is a reasonable value indicating the tool consistency that enhanced its use for the study.

DISCUSSION
In going through the analysis of the study, it was found out that participants had a fairly positive attitude towards the overall concept of the study, given that their answers were above the acceptable mean of the statistical process, which rendered the study valid. The main aim in the current study was to examine the influence of marketing mix approach along with its 4 Ps (price, product, place and promotion) on the idea of CRM, including the variables of responsiveness, reliability, assurance, empathy and customer relations.
The main result of the study indicated that there is a positive influence of marketing mix variables on the CRM dimensions. In that sense, it can be understood through the results that the variables of CRM gathered can influence the degree of customer satisfaction and purchasing decision, when gathering it with a well-built approach of marketing mix Ps, the influence becomes more and more apparent reaching to the point that marketing mix does influence the customer relationship management.
This idea was determined by Prakoso et al. (2017) who argued that the variables of CRM can together form and influence the satisfaction of customers, in that sense, the influence of marketing mix scheme can be seen through the influence of the 4 Ps on customer, which draws the connection between both. On the other hand, Felix (2017) noted in his study that the variables of CRM are part of the service quality dimensions, which altogether can influence the mental image of a customer towards a certain brand, service or product; so, basically, when an organization manages the marketing mix approaches of price, promotions, place and product; they are mainly influencing the ways of managing the service from one side and the satisfaction and loyalty from the other.
Through the analysis, it was found that among the chosen variables of the marketing mix di-mensions, price appeared to be the most influential factor that may influence the dimensions of CRM. This indicated that prices are one of the sensitive areas, which the organization can manipulate to ease the process of customer management through increasing their satisfaction. This idea was talked in a study by Bitran, Oliveira, and Schilkrut (2017); the authors argued that managing customers will be much easier in case the organization had the needed knowledge on the influence of pricing and at the same time the role of service quality on customers. On the same track, Cheserem (2016) argued that not only the price, but also the location of the goods, its quality can also help in what is called the customer preposition, it has a deep influence on attracting customers and manage their relationship with the brand itself.
Felix (2017) also noted to the role of price as one of the service quality dimensions that can influence the attitude of customer, this influence and change in the customers' attitude can make a difference in the way the management tackles its relations with customers, Felix (2017) adds that it is not only the price that influences how the organization manages its relations with the customers, there is also the physical location of the product/brand, and the appearance of this product in terms of the packing, quality and content.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The current section presented the conclusion, which was reached by the researcher in accordance with the aforementioned results of the study. The conclusion will connect the results with the literature review of the study, and it will be followed by the recommendations, which appeared through the process of discussing the results.

Conclusion
The current study aimed at examining the influence of marketing mix 4 Ps (price, place, promotion and product) on the CRM variables (responsiveness, reliability, empathy, customer relations and assurance). Through the quantitative approach, the researcher distributed a questionnaire on a total of 37 individuals who ranged between marketing managers, sales, and representatives. The results of the study indicated that there is a positive influence from participants towards the variables of the study; this was seen through the mean of the variables, which scored higher than 3.
Looking at the results of the study, it was seen that price is the most influential variable of the marketing mix that can influence the CRM strategies. The importance of price rises from the fact that it is one of the aspects that influences the level of customers' attraction towards a certain product or service, given that they tend to care of the cost they have to bear in getting this service. Based on that, organizations tend to give much emphasis on the idea of prices, which can appear in different forms like discounts, offers and holiday seasons.
Following the variable of price came the variable of product, which refers to the product specifications and to what degree it can be seen as matching the customers' expectations. It appeared that customers tend to give more attention to the product itself compared to promotion and place, this can be attributed to the fact that there is now the concept of online purchasing and the fact that a customer can pick whatever they need online and have delivered the comfort of their own houses, that is why the place is no longer an important issue compared to the other variables. As for the promotion, customers tend to build their relationship to a certain brand or organization, they reach a state where they no longer are of the promotional procedures that the organization follows to attract them as long as they are satisfied with the service they get.

Recommendations
Based on the conclusion of the study, it is recommended: 1) to increase the level of awareness regarding organic products marketing strategies among the marketing managers in Jordan; 2) it appeared through the analysis that marketing managers within the organic production field lack the needed skills in marketing and promoting for the organic products in Jordan in accordance with the orientation of the Jordanian consumers; 3) there is a need to increase the awareness of the importance of organic and healthy foods in the Jordanian market, as it appeared that there is a lack in understanding the difference between regular and organic foods; 4) it important to note that there is a difference between the marketing plans that are followed in promoting for regular foods and organic foods in Jordan.