ADVERTISING INTIMACY - RELATIONSHIP MARKETING AND THE SERVICES CONSUMER

The article proposes intimacy theory as the basis of services relation ships communicated by advertising. It advocates intimacy theory as mor e generalizable across services marketing situations than either excha nge or seduction theory. Drawing from psychology and social psychology , it presents intimacy attributes relevant to services marketing-the ' 'five C's'' of communication, caring, commitment, comfort, and conflic t resolution. It then streamlines Levinger's five-stage model of intim ate relationships into one with four stages-acquaintance, buildup, con tinuation, and dissolution. Dissolution collapses Levinger's stages of ''deterioration'' and ''endings'' into a multidimensional phase that includes four consumer responses adapted from Rusbult's work. These re sponses are ''exit,'' ''voice,'' ''negative WOM,'' and ''loyalty.'' Th e article concludes with suggestions for future research on intimacy s kills and individual differences in;intimacy needs.