Using vocabularies of motives to facilitate relationship marketing: The context of the Winnebago Itasca Travelers Club

Abstract

This study examines how the Winnebago Itasca Travelers (WIT) Club attracts new customers and builds customer loyalty by using vocabularies of motives and core framing activities. Utilising social movement theory, this analysis finds that WIT members have an instrumental vocabulary about potential problems that serve as tools for recruiting new members. The instrumental vocabulary encompasses the diagnostic and prognostic frames of retirement, travel and information. WIT members also utilise an expressive vocabulary justifying their club-related behaviour; these motivational frames of friendship, fellowship and fun provide a rationale for increasing active association within the club. Findings are discussed in the light of relationship marketing.