Managing Customers for Profit

"This is a milestone book in marketing. Most companies claim they are focused on customers, but even those who are, probably do not take a scientific approach to customer management. Professor V. Kumar is the acknowledged expert on the science of customer management. This important book raises all the key questions in managing customers, provides the analytical tools for optimization, and illustrates these tools with a number of company examples." -Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University "Delivering lasting client value is at the heart of profitable businesses today. Managing Customers for Profit provides a compelling, empirically-tested approach to significantly enhance traditional customer relationship management initiatives. I highly recommend this book to all those interested in cultivating lasting profitable growth relationships with current and future clients." -Tim Bohling, Vice President, Market Intelligence, IBM Americas "Executives are too often guided by backward-looking, short-term metrics. This book shows how a focus on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) can change management toward long-term results by providing a fresh perspective on customer targeting, retention, and loyalty. Highly recommended-it shows you the way toward strategic customer thinking." -Dave Aaker, Vice-Chairman, Prophet, Author of Brand Portfolio Strategy This book shows you how. Leading marketing expert V. Kumar shows how to use Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to target customers with higher profit potential...manage and reward existing customers based on their profitability...and invest in high-profit customers to prevent attrition and ensure future profitability. Kumar introduces customer-centric approaches to allocating marketing resources for maximum effectiveness...pitching the right products to the right customers at the right time...determining when a customer is likely to leave, and whether to intervene...managing multichannel shopping... even calculating a customer's referral value. Drawing on his extensive experience consulting with world-class marketing organizations, Kumar illuminates the challenges of transitioning from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach and presents proven solutions. Simply put, this book's techniques offer marketing executives a complete framework for linking their investments to business value-and maximizing the lifetime value of every single customer. Foreword xiii Preface xv Acknowledgments xviii About the Author xix Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Maximizing Profitability 11 Chapter 3: Customer Selection Metrics 29 Chapter 4: Managing Customer Profitability 59 Chapter 5: Maximizing Customer Profitability 75 Chapter 6: Managing Loyalty and Profitability Simultaneously 93 Chapter 7: Optimal Allocation of Resources across Marketing and Communication Strategies 113 Chapter 8: Pitching the Right Product to the Right Customer at the Right Time 127 Chapter 9: Preventing Attrition of Customers 143 Chapter 10: Managing Multichannel Shoppers 163 Chapter 11: Linking Investments in Branding to Customer Profitability 187 Chapter 12: Acquiring Profitable Customers 205 Chapter 13: Managing Customer Referral Behavior 223 Chapter 14: Organizational and Implementation Challenges 249 Chapter 15: The Future of Customer Management 267 Index 283