Abstract: In today"s environment, companies of all sizes need to practice customer relationship marketing to gain a competitive edge. This is feasible if CRM becomes an integrated part of the marketing management paradigm. The paper suggests adding a fifth P to the marketing mix framework to seek such integration. The fifth P refers to profiling the customer. A managerial model of CRM is presented with propositions for future research on the subject.
Keywords: Relationship marketing; customer loyalty; customer lifetime value; marketing mix and customer relations management; managing customer value; profitability of long-life customers. --Download Article
Introduction:
Companies collect and store huge quantities of information about their customers. The growing sophistication of analytical tools makes such information a valuable resource. Using customer information companies can learn a lot about their customers and their world. For example, companies
are able to fashion sample customer segments that are used to test new products. Customer information also helps in relationship marketing, that is, in maintaining long-term relationships with customers. Serving customers over a long period has a positive impact on performance
Marketing & CRM