NTRODU CTION

Relationships with customers are important for profitable business in consumer and business
markets. Human beings do their best to build and maintain strong relationships with other social
elements to survive in societies because according to the social exchange theory there is no one
that can survive in the world without social interaction with social elements. For such survival
individual as well as groups try their best to make strong relationships in the society for
achieving their individual and common goals. Interaction means that organizations use different
techniques to encourage elements (Trust, commitment) in the consumers that create strong and
profitable relationships. Different kind of actions is taken that individuals and organizations u
sed to activate Trust, commitment in consumer and business markets.
All elements of relationships performed strong role in relationship with customers. All such
Relationship marketing sources have powerful effect on the customer behavior towards the prod
uct or brand. If customer is trusted with a product or brand than relationship marketing sources
will be more powerful source to create long term relationship with existing customers and
expanding the relationship with new customers. Trust and commitment also have important role
in creating and maintaining relationship with customer. Trust in the present scenario of Pakistan
has very importance in every field of business. All such contributions are needed in the consumer
markets of Pakistan which suggest a Relationship Track so that strong relationships can be
established and maintained with the customers ‘Creating trust based relationship requires the
mutual agreement and intention from both sides like customers and firm, it also requires
patience and determination (Drive, 2003). If firms lose their customers then it indicates that trust
is absent. So to build and carry on the relationships need trust building. Building trust require
care about respect and privacy of customers (Shenton, 2001). In the global and diverse culture
the main factor ofstrong relationship is the trust. Firm need to conduct training programs to teach
how to build trust in customers, employees and suppliers.
When positive expectation meets the trust relationship created. Trust is an attitude not a type of
option or behavior. (IRCO, 2000). Integrity in trust has the important role in the creation of long
sustainable of trust relationship (Bell, Oppenheimer & Bastien, 2002). All types of trust have
some meanings to create strong relationship. If one type of trust is positive and others are neutral
than interpersonal trust will be positively related with virtual collaboration relationship
performance (Paul & Jr, 2004). The interpersonal, personal and institutional types of Trust have
strong role in internet based relationship with customer for a long period of time, Trust is a
complex concept to conceptualize and practice it ( McKnight & Chervany ,2002).

3 Research design
As indicated by Saunders et al (2012), design of a research is the guide to any study and it
encourages the discussion of procedures followed in a particular study. In the proposed study
plan, pragmatism philosophy is chosen as it supports an objective and scientific research that is
based on empirical testing of quantitative data. Also, descriptive methodology will be used as
supports positivism and based on objective treatment of selected dependent and independent
variables. A partial use of Interpretivism or exploratory strategy will be used to find the detailed
information in form of interviews of SMEs managers.

3.1 Research Strategy

A wide variety of research strategies are available to facilitate the data collection in a particular
research, including case study, experiments, observation, interviews, and survey methods
(Bryman, 2008). For the proposed descriptive study, data collection technique through survey is
picked as it suits the pragmatic philosophy that is selected as the general philosophy of this
research. According Schwab (2003) survey method is simple, accurate, and suitable to collect
data from large samples. Also, interviews will also be used as a supplementary strategy to
supplement the subjective nature or the parallel approach with a qualitative methodology.
Interviews of managers of Islamabad Tea Company will contribute the exploratory elements of
the proposed study.

3.2 Research Approach

Schwab (2003) asserted that there are two main approaches used in social sciences research,
inductive and deductive. Deductive is considered as a top down methodology which is used to
test the described theory to built ideas and design hypothesis. Then mathematical or statistical
procures are used to test these hypotheses or assumptions. In contrast, inductive methodology is
based on exploratory inquires about complex problems that need detailed exploration. As clear
and objective data collection methods are used in the suggested deductive approach, the
proposed research will mainly be based on quantitative and top down ways of data collection.
3.4 Sampling Procedures
The sample for proposed study will be selected from customers and managers of Islamabad Tea
Company . Additionally, the sampling technique will be purposive sampling, a non probability
sampling procedure that encourages the accumulation of data from respondents who are
specifically targeted (Base, 2006). The size of this sample is proposed as 50 customers for survey
and five managers for interviews.

3.6 Data Collection

3.6.1 Types of Data Collection

There are two types of data exist, quantitative and qualitative. In this research, both qualitative
and quantitative data will be collected.

3.6.2 Secondary Sources:

The secondary data from sources of literature and companies’ information for proposed
exploration will be collected from scholarly periodicals, online sources, and annual industry
reports (Schwab 2003).This secondary data will be used to outline the background and literature
review segments of the final research report.
3.6.1 Primary sources
Primary data will be collected through surveys and interviews. Survey procedure is chosen
because of its effectiveness, effortlessness, and ability to gather vast volumes of information.
This strategy is termed as effective as inclusion of the researcher is not required. Personally
administered surveys will be used to gather information from customers. The interviews of
managers will also be used to find the detailed information about consumers’ perceptions about
Islamabad Tea and marketing strategies used by Islamabad Tea company. . Arrangement of at
least three interviews from managers of selected SMEs will also be the part of this research
design.
3.7 Data Analysis
The statistical procedures are proposed to analyse the collected quantitative data from
employees’ survey. The qualitative data to be collected from managers’ interviews will be
analysed through the technique of ‘thematic analysis’.