DAEMON QUEST - Biblioteca Estrategias de Marketing y Clientes DQ-Expansion

Starbucks Coffee. Having coffee: a personal experience

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:38:40 +0200

In the United States, when you talk about coffee, you talk about Starbucks. The surprising American coffee shop chain is on the road to achieving what its main driver and strategy director, Howard Schultz, proposed one day: to become the most well-known and respected brand on the planet. Based on a very specific customer service concept and propelled by an aggressive national and international expansion, the company made its popular logo shine brightly in half the world, and it is known by the majority of the population.
It all started with a coffee shop in Seattle in 1971, and not long afterwards it began its local growth, entering the coffee importation business and roasting beans from its own plants. The business made a 180-degree turn in 1982, when Howard Schultz joined the company, charged with handling marketing tasks and managing the retail business. The director took a trip to Italy in 1983, where he discovered the charm of Milan coffee shops, the taste of “espressos”, and the pleasure of stopping for a cup of coffee in a pleasant environment. Convinced that the European way could work in the United States, he made efforts to apply it to his business.

Levi's, made-to-order trousers

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:36:29 +0200

It is one of the reigning companies in terms of personalization… “Create your Own Jeans” is the slogan behind Levi’s strategy, and it has been met with wide acceptance, especially among young customers.
The idea is that, whatever the customer’s style (from the most classic to the most cutting-edge), they always go to Levi’s as an unbeatable and prestigious reference point in the world of denim.
Some data speaks for itself:

Levi's has approximately 1.5 million possible combinations of trousers, based on three criteria: style, width and length of leg, and fastener.
Close to 50.000 sizes and approximately 30 different styles allow for those 1.5 million versions.
Levi's has created a system capable of taking the customer’s measurements and having their jeans ready in less than two weeks.
The repetition rate for Levi's customers is close to 40%, while the average repetition rate in the consumer goods sector rarely surpasses15%.

The end of Product Marketing. Companies face an organizational shift toward the customer

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 19:25:40 +0200

Abstract

For decades, the product and its promotion have been the foundations on which companies have developed their sales strategies.
Currently, there is a confrontation in the business world between policies that are oriented towards the product and strategies oriented towards the customer.
The companies that put the focus on the product manage the different areas of their organization according to their offer, and focus their attention on product managers for the design and commercialization of their products and services.
It is imperative for the culture of “product managers” to be transformed into a culture of “customer managers”.
A company’s profitability, however, depends on its customers, and especially on the value those customers offer the organization.
The customer’s potential value is the key to profitability, because it takes the customer’s lifespan and share into account.
Knowing the customer in-depth allows us to structure the offer according to the different market segments, adjusting products and services to their needs and optimizing costs by reducing the risk of failure.

The traditional focus on the product is being questioned. Companies are facing the challenge of changing this business perspective and opting for a strategic orientation towards the customer.

1. The decline of product Marketing

Throughout history, many commercial successes have base their strategy on a great product. The accuracy of certain designs and their practical application in wide-range environments has led entrepreneurs, small, medium, and large companies to success on the market, generating millions in profits. Post-It notes, mobile telephones, or tissue paper (originally sold under the brand name Kleenex) are some notable examples developed throughout the last century, in which the preliminary work on an idea and a project played a decisive role in what would later become true blockbusters.

Keys to retaining the best customers and preventing abandonment to the competition.

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:40:17 +0200

Abstract

The loyalization budget cannot be invested indiscriminately, but rather in the customers of high-value for the company.
Loyalization is one of the most used concepts in the marketing field, but also one of the worse used.
The most commonly used loyalization actions, based on points programs and cards, are being revealed mostly as unprofitable and inefficient.
It has not been proven that the most loyal customers are also the most profitable; nor that the most profitable customers are also the most loyal.
Traditional loyalization techniques is no longer a “plus” for the customer, who feels “bombarded” by dozens of loyalty cards and programs designed to retain him or her, without offering advantages according to his or her needs.
Only accurate segmentation of the customer portfolio allows a company to know exactly who they must loyalize, that is to say, in which customer segments it must invest its human and financial resources, and it makes it easier for them to measure the efficiency of its sales and marketing actions.
Customers are aware of their value, and they want to be treated accordingly. This is true of both new and old customers.
Only the use of Customer Intelligence techniques allows us to establish “alarm” systems that prevent customer abandonment to the competition.

The loyalization models currently in use are being questioned. Traditional customer retention techniques are not only being revealed as economically unprofitable, but also commercially inefficient. Only an accurate customer portfolio segmentation can avoid indiscriminate and discretionary loyalization, and it allows us to know exactly what customers we are interested in retaining, and how. Based on Customer Intelligence, new segmentation techniques are paving the way with new results.

1. Loyalizing intelligently means knowing the customer

“Loyalization” is probably one of the most commonly used terms in the marketing world… It is also one of the worst used terms. The idea of retaining the customer and avoiding their abandonment to the competition has lost value over the years, to the point that today they term “to loyalize” is used for almost any promotional action, as indiscriminate and ineffective as it may prove to be.

NH Hotels: intelligent segmentation

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 18:38:17 +0200

September 11th: a fateful day whose economic consequences dragged out over several months and caused a chain of disasters for many sectors. In the hotel sector, occupancy fell 10 points and, although it was a general crisis for everyone, for NH it coincided with the acquisition of two chains in Holland and Germany, and with an international expansion process that involved the entry of 17 countries and brought 96 new establishments to its normal offer.

The company needed to integrate the newly acquired hotels and launch the brand in new markets, where it was completely unknown, and it found itself with a total of 250 different ways of gathering and storing information, causing all its customers’ information to be put together without any uniformity.

Overvalued Customers

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 19:09:17 +0200

In recent decades, large corporations have undertaken a desperate race of mergers and acquisitions. Sectors such as banking, insurance, telecommunications, the pharmaceutical industry, or the automotive industry have been the main players in this race to lower prices, optimize resources, search for new and prosperous markets, and economic growth.

However, the value that is generated rarely makes the transaction profitable. Approximately 50% of the merger and acquisition operations of the last 30 years have not produced an added value.

The problem begins when an inexistent value is given to the intangible part of the acquired company. When Terra paid 1.25 billion dollars to acquire Lycos, it became one of the world’s main Internet companies, with more than 40 million users. In the end it was proven that, in a sector in which customers barely generate direct income, it was too ambitious to value them so highly. In July of 2004, Telefonica got rid of Lycos, selling it to the South Korean company Daum Communications for the equivalent of 1% of what they paid for it 4 years earlier.

Imaginarium: loyalizing intelligently

Sat, 26 Mar 2005 16:14:13 +0100

New, intelligent, and effective loyalization strategies do not only arise outside of our country. The specialty toy store chain, Imaginarium, has been able to, in its brief history, win over an extremely loyal clientele, which includes children and, above all, their parents. Using its affinity card, “Familycard Imaginarium”, and with the creation of a “Club Imaginarium”, which already has close to 400,000 members, the company has been able to establish a relational marketing model based on actions designed “with the customer” and not, unilaterally, “at the customer”. In “Club Imaginarium”, parents have advantages to their purchases, promotions, search for the most appropriate toy, discounts for large families… Moreover, they receive advice on the most appropriate toys, and privileged treatment in the store, with special touches and gifts. The chain has even organized two days per year in which the establishment is only open to club members, where they receive advice from specialized personnel and the scoop on all new products.

Sales Force Effectiveness. Sales Network Optimization

Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:17:31 +0100

Abstract

New ways of managing sales networks are arriving with force, based on Sales Intelligence.
Sales planning must be based on the previous analysis of customers, the potential market, the competition, and the sales network itself. Once all this analysis is done, we must design goals and proceed to assign resources.
“Customer allocation” constitutes one of the pillars of the sales strategy.
Despite the boom of certain software tools (“Sales Force Automation”, ETMS, CRM...), these do not always involve the sales force in achieving better results. A Sales Intelligence strategy is necessary in order to support the sales representatives in attaining their goals.
The rise of new sales channels has changed the way in which sales networks are organized and coordinated.
Correctly sizing the sales network translates into aspects such as the proper location of the network, the presence of reps in areas with high growth potential, and the proper layout in terms of the competition.
Geomarketing, or geographical sales analysis, is the tool with which to correctly size the sales force, since it allows us to recognize on a map the measurements that identify markets and target customers.

A company’s success depends in large part on the performance of its sales team; an item that usually constitutes 20-30% of any company’s costs. Few organizations worry about structuring their sales networks and revolving their strategies around the axis of customer value. Only by placing the customer at the center of sales planning is it possible to properly size sales networks and correctly assign the necessary channels and resources.

1. From the old sales networks to the New Sales Strategy

For many companies, the sales force represents the spinal cord of their organizations. In a multinational such as Avon, a large part of its business success comes from relying on an enormous army of representatives that, door-to-door and living room-to-living room, has shown, tested, and sold its products, giving the company a familiar and personal tone that a large part of the competition lacks.While the cost of personal sales represents between 8 and 15% of a company’s spending, as opposed to the estimated percentage of advertising costs (an average of 1-3%), the effort has paid off for Avon.It currently has more than 3.5 million distributors worldwide, 700 million customers, and a turnover of more than 6 billion dollars annually (more than 2.5 billion dollars go to commissions for sales reps).

The pharmaceutical sector faces the challenge of optimizing its sales and marketing strategy

Sat, 26 Mar 2005 13:03:23 +0100

While sales force optimization is a challenge that has been faced by all sectors to which sales networks are critical, for the pharmaceutical industry, this challenge has become a vital necessity.

The laboratories face growing pressures that intensify the struggle to be competitive in the sector. First of al, the regulatory environment of medical visits is becoming increasingly strict. Also, control of sanitary costs that Public Administrations have made their goal has translated into an increase in fiscal pressure on the pharmaceutical industry and, similarly, into a clear support for the commercialization of generic medications.

Advanced Customer Management

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:13:57 +0100

Abstract

Customer Intelligence is still a pending challenge in too many organizations that fail to recognize the growth potential of their current customers.
Before considering the launching new products and services, and consequently the segmentation of the potential market, every company must ask itself whether it is more effective and competitive to analyze and take advantage of their current market’s possibilities.
Developing an accurate customer management is critical in optimizing cross-selling, up-selling, and loyalization opportunities.
The criterion on which any advanced customer management should be based is value; as much current value as potential value.
Applying Customer Intelligence techniques allows us to geometrically increase the potential value of customers.
One of the maximum objectives of advanced customer management is to contribute to quantifying a company’s “customer equity”; to “monetize” the net value of its customer portfolio.
Analytical techniques such as Data Mining, commonly used in scientific fields, are fundamental to customer portfolio analysis.
An accurate customer intelligence facilitates customer allocation strategies - that is to say, correctly assigning human and financial resources -, marketing and sales action strategies, and strategies for finding the appropriate sales channels for the right customer segments.

Why throw ourselves into conquering the potential market, with all the investment resource it requires, when we still haven’t taken advantage of the immense possibilities of current customers? Advanced customer management, grouped under the terms Customer Intelligence or
Marketing Intelligence, provides an exhaustive knowledge of the customer portfolio, and it is winning by a landslide among companies with a large amount of consumers. Its benefits are clear: it optimizes costs, increases satisfaction levels and consumer loyalty, allows us to sell more and better, and favors the maximization of sales channels and strategies.

1. New Marketing is based on differentiated management according to segments

Distribution giants, such as Wal-Mart; financial entities as global as American Express or Mastercard; insurance companies as powerful as Lloyd’s; colossal software and e-business companies like IBM or Microsoft; airlines such as Iberia or British Airways, and telecommunications operators like AT&T or Telefonica have several million customers worldwide. How do companies like this get to know all of their customers? How do they organize themselves in order to know who they are and what the needs are of customers who are increasingly demanding, well-informed, and willing to change providers with increasing ease? Customer Intelligence is becoming the necessary solution for all those companies that want to know who their customers are, how they behave, and what they demand.

Tesco, the customer intelligence paradigm

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:04:44 +0100

Tesco, one of the principal British retail distribution chains, is one of the most outstanding examples of carrying out a successful segmentation strategy. In this way, the company was able to rectify past mistakes, in which its concern with improving relations with providers and partners had made them forget the customer. Since 1947, when the first British business based on the American concept “self- service” opened, the company had focused on optimizing its relationship with partners and providers, improving its logistic processes at the cost of leaving the customer behind. Over time, this strategy cost the organization dearly, and its image among consumers was that of a low-price, low-quality company with poor customer service.

Harrah’s opts for Customer

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 16:41:38 +0100

Harrah’s opts for Customer
Intelligence and wins
Faced with decreasing profits, Harrah’s Entertainment, one of the sector’s pioneer companies and today the absolute leader of this industry, decided to abandon its direct marketing policy, the indiscriminate advertising and promotions that their competitors were fiercely carrying out, in order to stop, take its time, and carefully analyze the profile of its current customers, who, like the rest of the competition, it was in danger of losing forever. Harrah’s Entertainment, like its rivals in the sector, was swimming in a sea of data that made it impossible for them to approximate their consumers’ reality. It had created a points program that allowed it to find out certain information about its customers through traditional loyalization techniques, but it was not able to distinguish its most profitable customers; those which deserved the focus of its retention efforts and new product and service offers, in an urgent context of crisis.

Harley-Davidson: a business culture transformed into a way of life

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 16:33:32 +0100

No driver is more proud of their vehicle and more devoted to a brand than the owner of a Harley-Davidson... Having a “Harley” means much more than driving a motorcycle... It means belonging to a select group of people with similar characteristics and affinities, but, above all, with a common denominator: their devotion to the same brand. How did Harley-Davidson achieve the miracle of having the most loyal and devoted customers in the world?

Though it’s hard to believe, the company went through a traumatic economic situation in the 1980’s, but it has been able to overcome the situation in recent years and return the brand to all its glory, simultaneously getting all Harley drivers to purchase, on top of the bike, its famous jackets, sports shoes or cowboy boots…

Levi’s, custom-made trousers for the customer

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 11:58:10 +0100

It is one of the reigning companies in terms of personalization… “Create your Own jeans” is the slogan behind Levi’s strategy, and it has been met with wide acceptance, especially among young customers.

The idea is that, whatever the customer’s style (from the most classic fashion to the most cutting-edge), they always go to Levi’s as an unbeatable and prestigious reference point in the world of denim.

Some data speaks for itself:

Levi’s has approximately 1.5 million possible combinations for their trousers, based on three criteria: style, width and length of leg, and type of fastener.
Close to 50,000 sizes and approximately 30 different styles allow for those 1.5 versions.
Levi’s has created a system capable of taking the customer’s measurements and having their jeans ready in less than two weeks
The repetition rate for Levi’s customers is close to 40%, while the average repetition rate in the consumer goods sector rarely surpasses 15%

Wal-Mart: Everything you ever wanted to know about your customers but were afraid to ask.

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 11:31:41 +0100

Even someone who has never set foot in the United States knows what Wal-Mart is. The worldwide distribution giant par excellence has become a prime example of customer knowledge… and not in vain. Some numbers speak for themselves:

Company revenue in 2004 approached 280 billion dollars.
Wal-Mart’s record for sales in one day is 1.7 billion dollars.
The company has a network of more than 4,300 different establishments and 220 distribution centers.
More than 100 million customers visit a Wal-Mart establishment in one week.

Analysts all agree: the cornerstone on which Wal-Mart’s success was built is exhaustive customer knowledge. In fact, the company has one of the largest civil databases in the world, which allows it not only to know exactly who its customers are and what their habits are, but also, and even more importantly, to predict their needs and behavior.

Geomarketing: Strategies for Balancing Areas

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 12:56:26 +0100

82% of Spanish companies’ sales networks are poorly located, according to a study carried out by Daemon Quest’s analytical services. The report shows that in companies with an inadequate sales location, at least 42% of its shops or offices are located in places that are difficult to access, low-traffic streets, or simply in places where the company is far from its potential market. The most serious consequence of this is that they are losing up to 50% of their sales.

In order for a company to open any type of physical establishment, it is necessary to know not only where the competition is, but also where the customers are, especially the best ones, and where there are people or entities so similar as to be considered as potential customers in the future. Which streets hold the greatest concentration of this type of possible customers, what areas they are contained in, and consequently, where the company should locate itself.
Geomarketing techniques are the solution for all decisions having to do with geographical placement, because they allow us to carry out exhaustive analysis of any company’s sales network.

Marketing One To One. Individualized Marketing Strategies

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 12:10:08 +0100

Abstract

Personalization is treating different customers in different ways. This focus demands meticulous knowledge of the customer, based on his or her value and potential lifespan in the heart of the company.
Personalization is a very fashionable term in the marketing world, but to apply it is a complex thing, since it demands a previous capacity for segmentation and very refined profiling.
Personalization strategies are directly related to Marketing One-to-One theories, which entail an entire organizational shift towards the customer, instead of the product.
The four basic pillars on which One-to-One Marketing rests are: identify high-value customers, differentiate proposals for different customers, interact with the customer, and customize the business culture.
Not all personalization strategies are profitable: every company must predict the return on investment in this type of strategy, before they go into it.
We should not offer excessively personalized products and services.
“A la carte” Marketing must satisfy the customer’s need to be individualized; in no case should that be confused with an excess of proposals.
It’s not the customer who must define him or herself to the provider, personalizing their demands. It is the obligation of the provider to know these needs and anticipate them.

“Treating different customers in different ways”. This is the premise underlying One-to-One Marketing, a new concept of sales and marketing management, whose philosophy puts the customer at the center of the company. Derived from One-to-One Marketing theories, personalization strategies and Individualized Marketing opt for exhaustive knowledge of the customer and his or her needs, in order to provide them with what they need, when they need it, and differentiate them clearly from the rest of customers. However, One-to-One Marketing techniques have limitations, which can only be overcome by an accurate Customer Intelligence strategy.

1. Individualized Marketing: treating different customers in different ways

Sales has traditionally been an assisted process... When someone goes to a dealer to buy a car, the salesperson acts as an advisor, steering the customer towards the product that most fits his or her tastes and needs. It is up to the salesperson’s intuition to figure out what impulses move that potential customer and play with those purchasing impulses and habits in order to close the coveted deal. Intuition is an excellent sales tool, but it relies on factors as arbitrary as they are subjective. The skills of the people monitoring a sales process must be supported by empirical and provable information, and that only exists if a Customer Intelligence strategy has been implemented in the company.

Starbucks Coffee. Having a coffee: a personal experience

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 12:02:26 +0100

It all started with a coffee shop in Seattle in 1971, and not long afterwards it began its local growth, entering the coffee importation business and roasting beans from its own plants. The business made a 180-degree turn in 1982, when Howard Schultz joined the company, charged with handling marketing tasks and managing the retail business. The director took a trip to Italy in 1983, where he discovered the charm of Milan coffee shops, the taste of “espressos”, and the pleasure of stopping for a cup of coffee in a pleasant environment. Convinced that the European way could work in the United States, he made efforts to apply it to his business.

High-Tech Marketing. The New Era of Scientific Marketing

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 11:22:00 +0100

Abstract

Sales and Marketing directors are overwhelmed by the information on their real and potential customers.
This overflow is creating a new generation of “info-addict” and “infoxicated” executives who face tremendous difficulties in distinguishing between useful and useless information.
Based on conventional scientific applications, new techniques are emerging which allow us to obtain meticulous information on the customer, based on rigorous and reliable data.
Neural Networks, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Mining allow us to obtain all the information on a customer, filter it, analyze it, and interpret it in order to transform isolated data into a real strategic decision-making support.
Applied to the marketing field, these types of techniques allow us not only to understand current customer behavior, but also, and even more importantly, to predict how they will behave in the future.

It is time for science to be applied to marketing, as is already happening in other business fields. Knowing who the customer is and what their habits are, and predicting their behavior is only possible by implementing strategies based on exhaustive gathering, filtering, analysis and interpretation of data on real and potential markets. Only by adopting Scientific Marketing can we transform information into knowledge that supports the company’s strategic decision-making.

1. The information era: “info-addicts” and “infoxication”

A simple Google search for the word information gives an Internet user 347 entries. This is only one indicator among many of the level of information bombardment the average individual experiences. If this average individual is also a company director, the degree of the information barrage skyrockets. Currently, executives are going through the highest levels of information flow in history. A study recently carried out by the University of California (UCLA) concludes that in the last 30 years, Humanity has generated more information than in the previous 5,000 years.

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

Case study:iPod for all tastes

Sun, 20 Feb 2005 17:21:14 +0100

Apple has been one of the most innovative companies in the field of information technologies. It owes a good part of the merit it has accumulated in recent decades to its co-founding genius and CEO, Steve Jobs, one of the great world masters of Marketing and segmentation.

In its recent history, the success of its line of portable music players, the iPod, is what has changed the company’s image. That product’s sales success has been so great that its very name has become synonymous with an MP3 player. At the end of 2004, the company had sold more than 10 million units worldwide, 4.58 million in the last trimester of that year alone.
What’s the iPod’s secret? As in the case of iMac computers, the iPod is not only attractive for its notable technology, but also because of its appearance. With a perfect design, the device has connected more with its users’ emotions and feelings than with their IT and digital music knowledge. The iMac discovered that, while “early adopters" and IT “geeks" notice features before aesthetics, there was also another important potential consumer group for whom the object’s beauty and its extremely easy use (turn it on and its ready to use) represented the key to opening their interest in technology.

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.

Fundamentals of New Customer Marketing

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 10:26:00 +0100

Abstract

Consumers have become more and more reticent towards advertising and traditional Marketing techniques. The market is more and more demanding and experienced. Companies must adopt strategies capable of overcoming this resistance.
The old traditional Marketing techniques, which have proven relatively effective in the last few decades, are not up to the current challenges.
Internal and external errors also cause Marketing to not be highly valued within the very companies themselves. It arouses suspicion in financial directors and, on numerous occasions, in the Board of Directors.
It is necessary to apply a new Marketing paradigm that places the customer at the center of the business strategy.
This new paradigm must facilitate the transition from relational Marketing models to dialogue-based Marketing models in collaboration with the market.
The development of a new high-tech Marketing, capable of effectively measuring results and adopting strategies from reliable information, is the foundation of the New Marketing.
Marketing directors face the difficult task of transforming this discipline into a measurable and respectable asset, comparable to any other asset of the company, which contributes to creating a sustained growth in results.

Traditional “Old Marketing” techniques have been useful for many years, but they are not up to the challenges of the current market. New paradigms are prevailing that are capable of meeting the needs of demand, and that combine imagination, intelligence, appropriate assignment of resources, scientific rigor, and the customer as the primary focus.

1. A hostile context for Marketing

More and more competitive environments; consumers that are more and more prepared and demanding; progressively more complex markets…Traditional techniques of old Marketing are not up to the new challenges presented by scenarios that are difficult to understand and attend to. It is time to take a step forward and lay the foundations of a New Marketing, one that places the customer at the center of its activity and combines imagination with scientific knowledge in order to achieve the best results and contribute to companies’ sustained growth.

Debunking myths

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 18:21:33 +0100

Business logia has given rise to a series of beliefs which, seen from the policy of orientation towards the customer, are somewhat less than half-truths. One of them is the one that contends that he who has the most customers is the market leader. When those customers generate little value in comparison to what the company spends on them, they become dead weight that can lead a company to bankruptcy.

Nor are the most solvent customers always the best for companies. In the case of credit entities and banks, it seems clear that the best customers are those that can clear their debt in the shortest time possible, because that allows the organization to quickly recuperate the money it loaned. However, in the long-term this is not true, since the more time a consumer takes to repay a loan, the more interest they must pay and, most likely, the more services they will use.