Creating a Value‐added Customer Database: Improving Marketing Management Decisions

One of the major issues confronting marketing decision makers is how to deal with the volume and complexity of customer information available. In addition to dealing with the volume of data issue, “relationship marketing” has also become an important focus, largely owing to the recognition that maintaining an existing customer base is far more cost‐effective than replacing disaffected customers with new users. As marketers refocus on customer‐centred relationships, however, efforts have come to rely extensively on the volume of customer information available from computer‐and scanner‐based data. Valuable as the information in these databases can be, the end result is often a distancing of the company from its customers.