In their zeal for getting to know real and potential customers and markets in-depth, there are some companies that are standing out. Here are a few examples:

• Tesco: their Clubcard, used by close to 20 million people, has allowed the distribution giant to create close to 5,000 need segments and design 300,000 different versions of their offers, according to these segments.
• Bankinter: by applying advanced scientific Marketing strategies and customer intelligence, Bankinter has been able to establish itself in recent years as the most sophisticated and accurate entity for customer strategy in our country, and one of the most accurate in Europe. The launching of these strategies has allowed Bankinter to considerable reduce their customer abandonment rate in its most profitable segments, and optimize resource assignment to the different segments of the market.
• P&G: leaves product design in the hands of the customer... At www.reflect.com, Procter&Gamble beauty product consumers can choose all the characteristics of the item they want to purchase.
• Cisco: has created “customer forums” so that their customers can debate the new needs Cisco must cover, the company’s strengths and weaknesses, etc…
• MasterCard: as many cards as customer segments... or almost. Mastercard has known how to group their user segments with exceptional talent in order to give their customers made-to-order products: Gold MasterCard, Platinum MasterCard, BusinessCard, ExecutiveBusiness Card...
• Dell: the queen company in terms of a dialogue with the customer and intelligent segmentation. In the United Status, Dell has eight basic, well-defined segments: global accounts, large companies, medium-sized companies, Federal Government, State and Local Governments, Education, small businesses and consumers…Simple, but absolutely practical and true.
• “Supernichers”: Do you know of companies like Tetra, Babolat or Hohner? To many, these names won’t mean anything…however, they operate on their markets as quasi-monopolies. They are companies that have opted for complete specialization. Tetra dominates 80% of the tropical fish market; Babolat sells 75% of the total for racket strings, while Hohner has an 85% share of the worldwide harmonica market…