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Strategic Database Marketing

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Strategic Database Marketing

McGraw-Hill,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

Your database can make millions for your company – but only if you know the best ways to use the information you gather.

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Can you have too much information? Only if you don’t know how to use it. Although many companies already use the Internet in tandem with their databases to gather information about their customers, marketers are only now beginning to grasp the powerful potential of Web-focused database marketing. Arthur M. Hughes is a pioneer in the field and his book is an essential database marketing resource. It clearly shows companies large and small how to use their databases to build relationships with their customers, and convert them into lifelong users of their products or services. It is necessarily technical at times, so a background in business is helpful in understanding all of the content. Yet, if the economics of database marketing make sense for your product or service – and Hughes will tell you if they do or not – getAbstract predicts that you will rely upon this book as a welcome guide.

Summary

Building Relationships, One Customer at a Time

What happened to the corner grocer? Where is the familiar person who greeted every customer with a smile and knew everyone by name? Supermarket chains and shopping malls replaced the friendly grocer, who went the way of milk and ice home delivery. When these neighborhood purveyors disappeared, so did the practice of building personal relationships with each and every customer – until the advent of modern database marketing or “Customer Relationship Management” (CRM). Database marketing lets companies build customer relationships via e-mail, telephone, Web sites and other service vehicles.

Today’s marketing is customer-centric. What customers want dictates what companies provide. This presents the question: “What do customers want?” They want businesses to recognize them as individuals, not just cogs in a mass market. They want convenience, easy-to-access information and thoughtful, knowledgeable service. And, they want to be able to identify with the products they use. What part does price play? Some “transactional buyers” are interested only in price, so you cannot establish a long-term relationship with them. The other...

About the Author

Arthur M. Hughes is a pioneer in database marketing. His past clients include Compaq, Nestlé, US West, BMW and Universal Music. He is Executive Vice President of a database marketing company, ACS, Inc., and an economics professor at the University of Maryland.

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