Experts' Opinion “Dr Shajahan has nicely explained the fundamental principles of customer relationship building in the first seven chapters and their applications in the next four chapters through suitable case studies. This book will be valuable to thousands of marketing professionals and students in understanding the power of customer relationship management.”
Prof Jagdish N Sheth
Charles H Kellstadt Professor of Marketing
Goizeuta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta,USA
“Relationship Marketing concepts and practices hold the promise of transforming businesses and the way people relate to one another. Management students or marketing professionals, who are driven by a strong urge to serve customers with a purpose will find this book eminently useful.” Prof Eric Balinski
President, Synection
Forest Hill Drive, NJ, USA From the Preface The book presents the issues, concepts, tools & methodologies and current practices in relationship marketing. All the three dimensions, general, corporate and academic, are discussed at appropriate depth to (a) impart knowledge to the MBA student and the budding marketer and (b) inspire him/her to put relationship marketing into action. General perspective - What is Relationship Marketing Relationship marketing is the on-going process of identifying and creating new value with individual customers and then sharing the benefits of this over a lifetime of association. Relationship marketing can be distinguished from conventional marketing as: Relationship marketing demands that companies sell to individuals - be it a person (in the case of a consumer product) or a company (in the case of an industrial product).This philosophy requires that companies adopt a policy of bonding with their customer, so that the relationship between them is much closer and intimate. Companies must adopt a philosophy of 'mass customization', where the product or service being offered is uniquely tailored to the needs and wishes of that customer.A mass customization approach demands that a company should keep detailed information about the needs, choices, preferences and behavior patters of customers. Corporate Perspective - Aligning with customer's needs Relationship Marketing seeks to align the enterprise with the expectations of certain customers and to deliver the value these customers want, continuously. The book contains several useful tools, methodologies and conceptual approaches for the company, which wants to embark upon the relationship marketing path and implement a strategy. These include: Calculating the lifetime value of a customer which is a key element in determining whether a long-term relationship with a customer is desirable or not.Arriving at a customer segmentation portfolio, which categorizes customers into various groups - according to the degree of affinity with the companyCreating and maintaining data warehouses that are most useful in a relationship marketing strategy, for both consumer and industrial firms.Planning a relationship marketing initiative and implementing it successfully.Employing tools to determine the current mix of customers, the current and potential profitability of each one and when to reward, discipline and even fire customers;Exploring the impact of technology on marketing and on the strength of bond with customers. Expanding the concept of a company's relationships beyond those with customers to include employees, suppliers, investors and other important links in the chain of relationships.Aligning various groups of stakeholders and initiatives inside the company in order to bond them more intensely with customers and create new value with them.Academic Perspective - Marketing Discipline and the Relationship Marketing Paradigm Relationship marketing is a new paradigm, which propounds ways to maximize an enterprise's returns in the newly emerging liberalized markets in India. It is included as one of the fundamental subjects in various management courses offered by Indian universities. This book presents an overview of updated, multifaceted, and latest research information systems. This book covers syllabi requirements of MBA, MIB and other Postgraduate level relevant management courses. There exists a huge gap in the existing literature and application oriented Relationship marketing techniques in Indian conditions. It is hoped that this book will close this gap at least partially. Features Discussion on customer acquisition, retention, add-on-selling, measuring profitability from relationship, CRM, database marketing, Web Analytics Software --Digital Scale Calculator, customer loyalty, learning organizations and so on.Substantial coverage of various IT-enabled relationship marketing concepts, campaigns, companies, packages and web based customer services.Coverage of technology issues / Internet applications throughout the book supplemented with company and service package literature. Chapters 8 and 9 exclusively discuss the application of technology in relationship marketing.This book opens up newer vistas of career to corporate executives and management and technology studentsCase Studies At the end of every Chapter carries a case study exercise. These case studies impart insights into research findings that can stimulate classroom discussion of real marketing industry issues. Emphasis Areas
Emphasizes practices like CRM, E-tailing, divisibility campaign, learning edge for relationship marketing, marketing relationship for profit, loyalty programs, tracking for e-loyal customers, knowledge management practices and so on. Review questions at the end of the chapters will aid the student in learning to apply the concepts. This book provides an insight into skills and aptitude for becoming a good relationship marketer or manager.
Chapter Contents Chapter 1: Overview of Relationship Marketing in the Millennium
Case Study on Southwest Airlines: Netting Profits Through Customer Driven Marketing Chapter 2: Fundamental Concepts in Relationship Marketing
Case Study on Shopper’s Stop - Stocking up on Emotions Chapter 3: Customer Acquisition Strategies
Case Study on Cadilla.com - Turning Browsers into Buyers Chapter 4: Customer Retention Strategies
Case Study on Maxwell Life Insurance Corporation Inc, USA Chapter 5: The Add-on Selling Strategies
Case Study on Mobey Think Forum Chapter 6: Customer Loyalty
Case Study on Airtel - Winning Customers through Loyalty Programme Chapter 7: Analyzing Profitability of Customers
Case Study on FCS Airlines Marketing Relationship for Profit Chapter 8: Information Technology Enabled Marketing
Case Study on TESCO: A Retail Customer Divisibility Champion Chapter 9: Overview of CRM and WEB Based Technologies
Case Study on New eRM Challenges in Smooth Credit Inc. Chapter 10: Learning Organisation
Case Study on Hotel Samudra - Learning Edge for Building Relationship Chapter 11: Integrated Relationship Marketing Strategies in the Millennium
Case Study on Myshop.com - Tracking for E-loyal Customer | 
2004
Tata McGraw-Hill