the economic laws that govern more tangible goods. But that's just not so.
Information goods are subject to the same market and competitive forces that
govern the fate of any product. And their success hinges on traditional product-
management skills: understanding customer needs, achieving genuine
differentiation, and developing and executing an astute positioning and pricing
strategy. What makes information goods tricky is their "dangerous economics."
Producing the first copy of an information product is often very expensive, but
producing subsequent copies is very cheap. Because competition tends to drive
prices to the level of marginal costs, information goods can easily turn into low-
priced commodities, making it impossible for companies to recoup their up-front
investments and eventually bringing about their demise. How to escape that fate?
Create different versions of the same core of information by tailoring it to
different customers' needs. The authors draw on a wide range of examples to
illustrate how versioning works.
Nick Wreden. "Mapping the Frontiers of E-Mail Marketing." Harvard Management
Communication Letter, September 1999.
E-mail campaigns can be a great addition to your company's marketing plan.
However, most traditional direct-marketing rules do not apply to e-mail so
companies need to proceed carefully. One wrong step, and you may find yourself
spending far more money than you thought, or worse, having your efforts branded
as "spam" the unsolicited commercial e-mail sent blindly to all e-mail
subscribers. This article tells you what to expect from your e-mail marketing
campaigns and how to avoid common pitfalls.
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Marvin Zim. "The Secrets of Science and Direct-Mail Marketing." Harvard
Management Communication Letter, March 1999.
Practitioners call it direct mail (DM). All too many consumers call it junk or
worse. This article answers questions about direct mail and explains how
marketers can use this often-maligned communications channel to their advantage.
Books
Roger J. Best. Market-Based Management: Strategies for Growing Customer Value and
Profitability, 2d ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000.
There's only one true source of cash flow in any business: the customer. Yet the
loss or gain of even just one customer rarely attracts notice in many companies.
This engaging book argues that marketing is truly everyone's job within an
organization. It then describes powerful tools and principles for building a market-
oriented business. Examples from well-known companies show how actual
business people have put these tools and principles into action with impressive
results. Application Problems at the end of each chapter give you the opportunity
to use your new knowledge.
Robert C. Blattberg, Gary Getz, and Jacquelyn S. Thomas. Customer Equity: Building
and Managing Relationships as Valuable Assets. Boston: Harvard Business School
Press, 2001.
This is the first book to provide a unifying framework and practical tools for
measuring customer value the potential profitability of each customer to the
company as a financial asset. Drawing from successful examples of customer-
equity management in a variety of industries, the authors outline how to build and
implement powerful new business and marketing systems centered on four key
practices: (1) balancing customer acquisition, retention, and add-on selling; (2)
managing the customer life cycle; (3) exploiting the power of databases; and (4)
precisely quantifying customer value. A comprehensive method for managing
customer portfolios across segments and over time, Customer Equity enhances the
ability of marketers to make better decisions, generate higher profits, and increase
shareholder wealth.
Harvard Business School Publishing. Harvard Business Review on Customer
Relationship Management. Harvard Business Review Paperback Series. Boston:
Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
This collection of cutting-edge articles shows you how to strengthen customer
loyalty through unique relationship-building strategies such as partnerships,
branding, and superlative customer service. Contents include: "Co-opting
Customer Competence" by C.K. Prahalad and Venkatram Ramaswamy; "Get
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Inside the Lives of Your Customers" by Patricia B. Seybold; "The Old Pillars of
New Retailing" by Leonard L. Berry; "Want to Perfect Your Company's Service?
Use Behavioral Science" by Richard B. Chase and Sriram Dasu; "Don't
Homogenize, Synchronize" by Mohanbir Sawhney; "Firing Up the Front Line" by
Jon R. Katzenbach and Jason A. Santamaria; "Preventing the Premature Death of
Relationship Marketing" by Susan Fournier, Susan Dobscha, and David Glen
Mick; and "See Your Brands Through Your Customers' Eyes" by Chris Lederer
and Sam Hill.
Harvard Business School Publishing. Masterly Marketing. Harvard Business Review
OnPoint Enhanced Collection. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, October
2001.
Why all the buzz about relationship marketing? Because it has enormous
potential: loyal customers who generate greater profits, year after year. But as this
collection reveals, relationship marketing is hard to implement. In fact, too many
companies pursue partnerships with customers who don't want that much attention
from marketers. When consumers are interested in these relationships, companies
often pester them for personal information without giving them anything
worthwhile in return. This collection offers solutions to these problems, including
strategies for winning back marketing-weary customers and ways to strengthen
the essential skills that all relationships including those with customers depend
on.
Sam Hill and Chris Lederer. The Infinite Asset: Managing Brands to Build New Value.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]