Limits where there aren’t any
First it was just a mere observation, but I wasn’t quite sure if my perception was right or not. Now I know! Wherever you look or listen, even among the experts, Database Marketing is equalled with some kind of Direct Marketing, and more often than not, this is equalled with direct mail. Weird, because these ‘practitioners’ place limits upon themselves where they aren’t any. Needless to say they will never benefit from the real power of Database Marketing, which, as you may have guessed now, extends far beyond direct marketing and direct mail.
But how come? The answer is easy. Whereas maintaining a mailing list and doing some queries is easy stuff and can be done largely without any human interference, anything that goes beyond a piece of communication to the customer or prospect involves a lot more than just a database extraction and some mail merge.
Read More»The Fallacy of Loyalty
Do you believe in lifetime customer loyalty? I don’t. Granted, there are exceptional cases where it does exist, but that’s like marriages that weather the time for five or more decades; the exception rather than the rule. I don’t understand how consultancies can freely abuse the term loyalty, even throw around a term even more audacious: ‘customer ownership’. But doesn’t that show their real attitude towards the customer? Isn’t that why real loyalty is so hard to ‘achieve’? I certainly think so.
As long as companies regard their customers as something ‘they own’, rather than something they have the pleasure of sharing a mutually beneficial time with, they will wonder why they can’t achieve loyalty – or only at great cost.
Read More»The Benefit of the Internet
It’s amazing, isn’t it? Within a matter of minutes you can now send mail at almost zero cost across the globe. Even better, within that short time, you can also get a response.
I am sure many of you have initially questioned the use of the Net as a combined communication and commercial medium, but let me tell you about my current experience, which, incidentally, was spurred by Marketing Competence.
Read More»Do benefits really benefit?
Before you think I’ve had too much South African wine, let me explain. Databases are there to help us: in Marketing, in Production, Administration, Logistics, you name it. A nice example of how technology properly applied makes our business decisions more accurate and predictable. We can now access information in seconds or minutes where before we had to wait weeks – if it was accessible at all.
We have also used technology to make it easier for the customers to communicate with us; to identify themselves to us; to tell us what’s right and what’s wrong.
Read More»Confusion rules, ok?
It really surprises me time after time that whenever there is a mention of the ‘database marketing’, the terms ‘direct’ and ‘mailing’ are used in the same context. But doesn’t it show the real mindset behind this thinking? Doesn’t it show that they ‘ab’-use the word ‘database marketing’ to cover their outdated marketing techniques and strategies? I honestly think so.
So when will ‘they’ learn that database marketing doesn’t have to be direct and the channel used doesn’t have to be mail either? My answer to this is: only when they realize that database marketing is a holistic and integrated process and not just a cover-up for their own reluctance to adapt and learn.
Read More»Have I lost it? A contribution to the dbm_rm dicussion group
A contribution to the DBM_RM mailing list I founded and was maintaining at the time.
I don’t know if you read Gerry McGovern’s New Thinking newsletter, but the latest one dealt with customer ownership, owning the future and such like.
What I read couldn’t be left unchallenged, so I wrote back. Now I would like to ask you whether I have lost it completely or whether you, fellow professionals, sympathize with the general notion of my response.
Would love to hear from you.
Helmar
Read More»Database Marketing & Relationship Management: 10 Steps to get you started
The following is my understanding of WHAT should be done in order to create the right environment for Database Marketing and Relationship Management. The HOW largely depends on the company’s individual circumstances. Database Marketing is just one term used to describe the way organisations look for improving and streamlining their marketing activities in a world of increasing competition, fragmentation and uncertainty – the computer database as a marketing tool.
Read More»An Imperfect Look at a Perfect Marketing Future
The virtues and benefits of Database Marketing have been explained in numerous textbooks, but have rarely found proper application in the business world. This can partly be attributed to the confusion revolving around the definition of both database and marketing, the latter in this country often used to describe Advertising and Sales Promotion.
Read More»