DAEMON QUEST - Todd Stein

Customer Intelligence, Beyond CRM

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 18:01:03 +0200

The conventional models of Customer Relationship Management are limited to gathering and storing all existing data on a company’s customers. Customer Intelligence goes much further: it analyzes all of this information in detail, and it presents tangible conclusions for management. Customer Intelligence today is the only technological tool that helps make decisions about customers based on scientific data.

A practically unknown tool in Spanish companies until very recently, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has grown in recent years to the point where today it is present in the majority of our country’s large companies.

Old Marketing is dead, long live New Marketing

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 18:20:12 +0200

Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to find a President or Director General that has developed his or her professional career in the Marketing field? Why do only 20 of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange FTSE index have a member of their Board of Directors who has come up through the Marketing world? Why does Marketing not occupy the place in companies that it deserves to occupy, and is the most sacrificed area when it comes to financial cutbacks?

We can’t answer these questions as victims. The answers are not as simple as “financiers are bad and marketing people are too soft”. The very professionals in the marketing discipline are in large part responsible for the mistakes that traditional Marketing has made.

10 Winning Strategies for a New Customer Marketing

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 19:30:06 +0200

Abstract:

The third edition of the Marketing Strategy Forum (MSF), organized by DAEMON QUEST, welcomed the most innovative Marketing ideas. Here we present the summary, in Ten Steps, of the “Recipes for Success for a New Customer Marketing”, from some of the best experts inside and outside of Spain, who were present at the MSF.

1. Going from tactical Marketing to Strategic Marketing.
2. Getting it right with the formula of Positioning + Segmentation + Targeting.
3. Designing Differentiation Strategies that distinguish us on the market.
4. Opting for a “Customer Driven Marketing” focused 100% on the customer.
5. Forgetting the ROI in favor of the “Return On Customer” (ROC).
6. Focusing on Value Strategies: Valued customer + Value proposition + Value Network.
7. Attending to new “multi-customers” that demand “key in hand” solutions.
8. Optimizing sales channels, fitting them to the correct segments.
9. Intelligent and profitable loyalization of appropriate customers.
10. Abandoning short-term strategies and valuing “Customer Equity”.

Last March 7th and 8th, in Madrid and Barcelona respectively, more than 1,000 Presidents, General Directors, Marketing Directors, and Sales Directors once again made the Marketing Strategy Forum (MSF), organized by DAEMON QUEST and HSM, the leading conference on innovation and Marketing in Spain. With national and foreign experts on hand, the forum inspired extraordinary ideas and tendencies aimed at transforming the old product marketing into a New Customer Marketing. We wanted to analyze and summarize them in ten steps aimed at reaching one common goal: designing winning Market Strategies.

Erroneous concepts regarding loyalization

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 15:40:17 +0100

The million dollar question every company should ask itself is not “Should we loyalize?”, but rather “Who should we loyalize?” Werner J. Reinartz, professor at the prestigious INSEAD at Fontainebleau, has developed a meticulous study that throws away the prejudices that have habitually accompanied loyalization, and denies, with a stroke of the pen, numerous erroneous theories associated with this concepti. Some examples:

Loyal customers cost less. In the study carried out by Reinartz in several large companies, it was shown that it is more profitable to loyalize customers who have been in our portfolio for years, than it is to loyalize recently obtained customers.
The principal is relatively simple, but absolutely essential: the majority of customers already know their value; they are aware of their importance and influence on the market. Therefore, they expect, from the beginning, to receive treatment, service, rewards, discounts, and prices according to the value they know they possess.
Loyal customers are ready to generate greater benefits for the company: in many of the companies studied, customers designated as “loyal” had for quite some time been paying prices up to 10% lower than new customers.
Loyal customers have a great reference power, and they serve as consumer motivators: The report did not detect practically any link between the length of the customer / provider relationship and the “word of mouth” recommendation.

Does the fact that these and other topics frequently associated with loyalization actions are being questioned mean that loyalizing is not profitable? The answer is “no”. Loyalization strategies are useful as long as they are based on a solid knowledge of the customer portfolio

Market Segmentation Strategies.How to maximize opportunities on the potential market

Sun, 20 Feb 2005 16:40:38 +0100

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 20th century, companies have applied segmentation strategies for the design and commercialization of an offer, but they are still complex processes.
Segmentation is the most critical process in Marketing strategy.
The correct segmentation is that which allows us to detect and analyze the market’s opportunities, discover untapped niches, get to know customers’ desires and tastes, and adjust sales and Marketing strategies.
It is not enough to segment appropriately. The important thing is to manage the market the offer is aimed at in the most appropriate way.
The four most common segmentation methods are geographical (in which consumers are distinguished by localization characteristics), demographic (where the determining factors are the elements of the customer’s personal situation), psychographic (in which more attention is paid to consumer lifestyles, activities, and interests), and behavioral (based on customers’ purchasing behavior).
The goal of segmentation is not having just any customer in our portfolio, but rather selecting a portfolio of highly profitable customers and doing without those who are not.

It’s not enough to give everyone the same thing anymore. Mass Marketing is history, because no product or service can be designed for every audience, whatever their origin or situation may be. The only way to reduce the possibility of failure to a minimum is carrying out appropriate market segmentation and correctly managing the customer groups the offer is aimed at. Without a doubt, it is one of the most critical decisions in Marketing strategy.

1. Segmentation: a constantly changing process

Segmenting is one of the oldest and unknown concepts in the business World. Almost a century ago, Alfred P. Sloan, the legendary president of the multinational General Motors, realized its importance and value. He initiated one of the first segmentation models in history.

The winners of the New Marketing

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 10:34:53 +0100

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.

Segmentation strategies

Tue, 07 Sep 2004 11:33:39 +0200

All the keys to getting the most critical marketing decision right

Abstract

Toughening competition makes segmentation strategies more complex and necessary.
A correct segmentation strategy must establish measurable, accessible segments that are themselves objective markets.
Traditional segmentation models – socio-demographic, psycho-graphic, behavioral - are still valid, but they should fit with company’s strategic objectives.
The segmentation strategies that are showing the greatest results are those that combine associations based on client value, and maximum segment accessibility.
A segmentation strategy must always be accompanied by sales and marketing actions appropriate to their results.
The best segmentation strategies are those that involve the entire company in the achievement of their goals.

Almost a century ago, Alfred P. Sloan, president of General Motors, launched one of the first segmentation models in history. Aware that not all Americans bought cars in the same way, Sloan put all his efforts into segmenting the American automotive industry, and he achieved it. He was able to implement a price system according to segment, and so he found one of the keys to advancing the then omnipotent Ford.

From those first uproars to the present time, segmentation strategies have been refined and perfected, impelled by more and more complex markets and technological advances. However, the basic principals of segmentation have not varied much over time. After all, if by segmentation we mean dividing the market into different client groups with similar characteristics, to whom we direct a company’s products or services, the challenges of years ago are not much different than those of today. The big goal is not simply segmenting, but rather segmenting successfully. What do we mean by segmenting successfully? Basically, those strategies that allow us to detect and analyze opportunities that the market offers, discover untapped niches, getting to know the desires and tastes of consumers and, above all, making sales and marketing strategies, and all of a company’s activity, fit the reality of a market which, thanks to correct segmentation, the company can get to know.