---
id: "claim-rmn-failure-is-relational"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["§ The Research"]
tags: ["root-cause-analysis", "relationship-management"]
related: ["concept-buyer-seller-role-inversion", "concept-coercive-monetization"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
speakers: ["Remko Van Hoek", "Stephanie Thomas", "Rodney Thomas"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/the-importance-of-trust-and-transparency-in-retail-media-networks"
source_title: "The Importance of Trust and Transparency in Retail Media Networks"
sources: ["attention"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-attention"
originDay: 4
articleStem: "hbr-foci-71-retail-media-networks-trust"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/the-importance-of-trust-and-transparency-in-retail-media-networks"
sourceTitle: "The Importance of Trust and Transparency in Retail Media Networks"
---
# RMN failure is relational, not technical or strategic

**Claim (confidence: high, testable).** Based on interviews with **28 executives representing over $1.1 trillion in annual revenue**, the primary reason many RMNs are stalling is *not* a lack of technical capability or strategic vision. The failure is **relational**: the dynamics between retailers and suppliers are breaking down due to new incentives, mismatched expectations, and a fundamental lack of trust.

This is the load-bearing empirical claim of the source. It motivates the [[concept-buyer-seller-role-inversion]] and [[concept-coercive-monetization]] diagnoses, is voiced in [[quote-problem-is-relational]], and is restated as the headline contrarian insight [[contrarian-rmn-failure-is-relational]].

**Enrichment — how settled is this?** Plausible but not fully settled. Adjacent literature agrees that transparency and fairness are central to RMN sustainability, but several sources argue technical/measurement problems (identity resolution, reporting consistency, attribution, privacy compliance, unified measurement) remain a major part of the problem space. A skeptical reading is that *poor trust may be a symptom of weak measurement infrastructure*, not a separate relational issue — and that some slowdown reflects normal market-cycle saturation as buyers shift from novelty spending to disciplined media procurement.


## Related across articles
- [[claim-trust-eroding-despite-growth]]
- [[concept-stakeholder-misalignment]]