In marketing we often talk about customers being assets. The relationship a business holds with its customers is a key source of profits. As such it was a deliberately provocative move when the editor of Marketing Science described some loyalty schemes — including the classic stamp based programs — as seeing customers as liabilities. Why…
Author: neilbendle
Neil is an Associate Professor Marketing at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. He investigates the measurement of marketing performance, the accounting/marketing interface, and the impact of non-standard decision making in commercial and political markets.
Neil is the Chair of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board advisors. He is co-author of Marketing Metrics: The Manager’s Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance (3rd edition) Wharton School Press and is co-author of a cartoon book: Behavioural Economics for Kids.
CLV And Limited Capacity
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a great thing to calculate. It encourages marketers to take the numbers seriously. It helps finance people see the numerical basis of marketing. Calculating CLV encourages you to treat customers well; they are valuable and you have the numbers to prove it. Finally marketing’s influence probably increases when people think…
Defaults Matter
There is a wonderful 2003 Science article about how people react to default choices. The conclusion? Defaults matter. Why Does This Matter? The article impresses for a number of reasons including: Saving lives matters. While it is not a theory paper the theoretical implications are substantial. What are people’s preferences — what they say or…
The Politician’s Fallacy
Yes Minister, a British TV show, explained a logical mistake called The Politician’s Fallacy. The politician sees a problem and feels that “Something must be done”, They find an approach and say “This is something”, Then they make a logical leap, “this must be done”. Measuring National Culture Numerical analysis of culture in business reminds…
Ron Paul’s Marketing Lesson
Politics can teach us a lot about marketing. Ron Paul’s story teaches us more than most. I’m not a Ron Paul follower but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from what he has done well and his problems. What is Ron Paul’s marketing lesson? The Marketing Concept When we teach marketing we suggest trying to…
Laziness Is A Sustainable Resource
People can be lazy. We often don’t find out all information relevant to the decision we are making. It is hard work to find information. Our decisions based upon limited information can lead to personally or environmentally destructive outcomes. People wouldn’t make these decisions if they thought a little harder. This is a problem. What…
Being One-Dimensional
In a positioning map there aren’t many absolute requirements. A requirement that really must be kept however is that each axis represents a single dimension. This is the importance of being one-dimensional. Multiple Terms On One Axis Creates A Mess If you try to have more than one dimension on each axis it isn’t so much…
Beating Rivals Should Not Be Your Goal
Is the goal of business to do the best you can or to beat others? A surprising number of people seem to think business is about beating others. The technical term is competitor orientation — when your ultimate objective is to beat your competitors. The point is that pretty much whatever your view of business,…
Boring Positioning Maps
I often discuss mistaken thinking. This post is a little different. I’m discussing something worse than being wrong and that is being boring. Specifically, producing boring positioning maps Not Wrong, Just A Boring Positioning Map A positioning map illustrates marketing strategies. Here I discuss the axes of which there are two generic types. Where there…
Evolution And Jack Welch
While it is rarely explicitly acknowledged evolutionary thinking is central to business theory. People often believe selection pressures change populations competing in markets. (How exactly this happens is often a little vague). What is the connection between evolution and Jack Welch? Evolutionary Thinking In Economics Armen Alchian was an early proponent of evolutionary thinking in…
