The Customer Loyalty Solution - Paperback

by Arthur Middleton Hughes (Author)

For many businesspeople, the highly touted database marketing initiatives of the past decade have revitalized marketing programs and even entire firms. For others, however, they have brought little more than wrong turns and false hopes. Why were some initiatives so effective, while others were so, so wrong?

In The Customer Loyalty Solution, database marketing pioneer Arthur Hughes reports that the problem wasn't in the programs, but generally in the antiquated technologies and thinking used to drive those programs. He combines current research with case studies from leading companies such as FedEx, StrideRite, Cendant, and Cingular to reveal how marketers can benchmark market-proven programs to successfully:
-- Track customer activity
-- Build enduring loyalty programs
-- Treat customer communication as a profit center

Back Jacket

How Today's Marketing Leaders Have Bypassed the "Experts" to Craft Effective, Inexpensive Customer Loyalty Programs

Database marketing is today's most powerful tool for designing cost-effective, resource-efficient marketing and operations programs. "The Customer Loyalty Solution "cuts through theory and guesswork to examine how leading marketers from Land's End to IBM are using today's new breed of database marketing tools to compute lifetime value, cut costs in every area, and make databases easier to access and utilize from anywhere on the globe.

Praise for "The Customer Loyalty Solution":

""The Customer Loyalty Solution "combines the best of traditional practice with contemporary market factors in terms that inspire and cut across industries. Straightforward enough for the upcoming 1-1 marketer as well as a great catch-up for the seasoned practitioner."--Joe Rapolla, VP, Consumer Marketing Services, Universal Music Group/CLO

"Delivers practical solutions instead of hyperbole and theory. Hughes makes this book fun to read, and he gets his point across--clearly."--Robert McKim, CEO, msdbm

"Well written and easy to understand. Hughes imparts his wisdom to set realistic expectations and provides case studies adding real-world application."--J.C. Johnson, VP, Database Marketing, Fairfield Resorts

"Hughes distills the jargon and complexity of database marketing into a refreshingly straightforward and practical guide. "The Customer Loyalty Solution "should be required reading for anyone serious about making database marketing work."--Jonathan Huth, VP, Relationship Database Marketing, Scotiabank

New technologies like the Web have brought unprecedented change to databasemarketing. But some things never change. Successful marketers have learned that to understand their customers they must still think like their customers, who continue to ignore one-time discounts to ask, "Why would I want to be that company's customer? What's in it for me?"

"The Customer Loyalty Solution "goes straight to the source, revealing how marketers today are leveraging their database marketing programs to identify and attract the most profitable new customers, increase current customer retention and repurchase, and identify and reward their most loyal and profitable customers. More than 40 detailed case studies and dozens of examples reveal success stories includingVerizon's "best in class" datamart that realized a 1681 percent return on marketing investment Isuzu's database project that targeted only their best prospects--and cut industry-standard per-unit sales costs in half "Weekly Standard"'s variable headline strategy that increased direct mail response rates by nearly 25 percent

Author and database marketing pioneer Arthur Hughes doesn't hide behind incomprehensible formulas and impossible-to-navigate layouts. Each easy-to-follow chapter clearly addresses and explains a different piece of the database-marketing puzzle. Case studies are clearly marked and detail what went right--or wrong. Chapter-ending synopses summarize the lessons to be learned in each chapter and clearly review what worked and what didn't. These features and others combine with innovative charts and quizzes to ensure hands-on understanding of material covered and make the book a timely, practical guide.

"The Customer Loyalty Solution "reveals how database marketing and customer relationshipmanagement initiatives are making a difference, today, for the world's leading marketers. It provides you with step-by-step techniques for benchmarking their efforts to develop intelligent strategies of your own, understanding how and why they work, and monitoring their results to continually adjust and modify for changing market conditions. The result will be far stronger customer loyalty, more consistent repeat sales, and a database-marketing program that is enjoyable and successful--for both you and your most profitable customers.