Spotlight
SPOTLIGHT ON REINVENTION
SpotlightSpotlight BELOW Michel de Broin, Encircling, 2006Asphalt, yellow paint, road sign, 14.8 x 21.9 m
Scape Biennale, Christchurch, New Zealand
Rethinking Ma
Because companies can now interact directly with customers, they must
radically reorganize to put cultivating relationships ahead of building brands.
by Roland T. Rust, Christine Moorman, and Gaurav Bhalla
SPOTLIGHT ON REINVENTION
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Christine Moorman
(moorman@duke.edu)
is the T. Austin Finch, Sr.,
Professor of Business
Administration at Duke
University’s Fuqua School
of Business in Durham,
North Carolina.
Gaurav Bhalla (gaurav.
bhalla@knowledgekinetics.
com) is the president of
Knowledge Kinetics, based
in Reston, Virginia.
Roland T. Rust (rrust@
rhsmith.umd.edu) is a
Distinguished University
Professor and the David
Bruce Smith Chair in
Marketing at the University
of Maryland’s Robert H.
Smith School of Business.
rketing
HBR.ORG
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Imagine a brand manager sitting in his office developing a marketing strategy for his company’s new sports drink. He identifi es which broad market segments to target, sets prices and promotions, and plans mass media communications. The brand’s performance will be mea-sured by aggregate sales and profi tabil-ity, and his pay and future prospects will hinge on those numbers.
What’s wrong with this picture? This fi rm—like
too many—is still managed as if it were stuck in the
1960s, an era of mass markets, mass media, and im-
personal transactions. Yet never before have compa-
nies had such powerful technologies for interacting
directly with customers, collecting and mining in-
formation about them, and tailoring their off erings
accordingly. And never before have customers ex-
pected to interact so deeply with companies, and
each other, to shape the products and services they
use. To be sure, most companies use customer re-
lationship management and other technologies to
get a handle on customers, but no amount of tech-
nology can really improve the situation as long as
companies are set up to market products rather than
cultivate customers. To compete in this aggressively
interactive environment, companies must shift their
focus from driving transactions to maximizing cus-
tomer lifetime value. That means making products
and brands subservient to long-term customer re-
lationships. And that means changing strategy and
structure across the organization—and reinventing
the marketing department altogether.
Cultivating Customers
Not long ago, companies looking to get a message
out to a large population had only one real option:
blanket a huge swath of customers simultaneously,
mostly using one-way mass communication. In-
formation about customers consisted primarily of
aggregate sales statistics augmented by marketing
research data. There was little, if any, direct commu-
nication between individual customers and the fi rm.
Today, companies have a host of options at their dis-
posal, making such mass marketing far too crude.
The exhibit “Building Relationships” shows
where many companies are headed, and all must
inevitably go if they hope to remain competitive.
The key distinction between a traditional and a
customer- cultivating company is that one is orga-
nized to push products and brands whereas the
other is designed to serve customers and customer
segments. In the latter, communication is two-way
and individualized, or at least tightly targeted at
thinly sliced segments. This strategy may be more
challenging for fi rms whose distribution channels
own or control customer information—as is the case
for many packaged- goods companies. But more and
more firms now have access to the rich data they
need to make a customer-cultivating strategy work.
B2B companies, for instance, use key account
managers and global account directors to focus on
meeting customers’ evolving needs, rather than
selling specific products. IBM organizes accord-
ing to customer needs, such as energy effi ciency or
server consolidation, and coordinates its market-
ing eff orts across products for a particular customer.
IBM’s Insurance Process Acceleration Framework is
one example of this service-oriented architecture.
Customer and industry specialists in IBM’s insur-
ance practice work with lead customers to build fast
and fl exible processes in areas like claims, new busi-
Product-Manager Driven
Many companies still depend on
product managers and one-way
mass marketing to push a product
to many customers.
Customer-Manager Driven
What’s needed is customer managers
who engage individual customers
or narrow segments in two-way
communications, building long-term
relationships by promoting whichever
of the company’s products the
customer would value most at any
given time.
CUSTOMER
PRODUCT
PRODUCT
CUSTOMER
Building Relationships
SPOTLIGHT ON REINVENTION
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ness processing, and underwriting. Instead of focus-
ing on short-term product sales, IBM measures the
practice’s performance according to long-term cus-
tomer metrics.
Large B2B fi rms are often advanced in their cus-
tomer orientation, and some B2C companies are
making notable progress. Increasingly, they view
their customer relationships as evolving over time,
and they may hand off customers to diff erent parts
of the organization selling diff erent brands as their
needs change. For instance, Tesco, a leading UK re-
tailer, has recently made signifi cant investments in
analytics that have improved customer retention.
Tesco uses its data-collecting loyalty card (the Club-
card) to track which stores customers visit, what they
buy, and how they pay. This information has helped
Tesco tailor merchandise to local tastes and custom-
ize off erings at the individual level across a variety
of store formats—from sprawling hypermarts to
neighborhood shops. Shoppers who buy diapers for
the fi rst time at a Tesco store, for example, receive
coupons by mail not only for baby wipes and toys
but also for beer, according to a Wall Street Journal
report. Data analysis revealed that new fathers tend
to buy more beer because they can’t spend as much
time at the pub.
On the services side, American Express ac-
tively monitors customers’ behavior and responds
to changes by offering different products. The
firm uses consumer data analysis and algorithms
to determine customers’ “next best product” ac-
cording to their changing profiles and to manage
risk across cardholders. For example, the first
purchase of a upper-class airline ticket on a Gold
Card may trigger an invitation to upgrade to a
Platinum Card. Or, because of changing circum-
stances a cardholder may want to give an addi-
tional card with a specifi ed spending limit to a child
or a contractor. By off ering this service, American Ex-
press extends existing customers’ spending ability to
a trusted circle of family members or partners while
introducing the brand to potential new customers.
American Express also leverages its strategic po-
sition between customers and merchants to create
long-term value across both relationships. For in-
stance, the company might use demographic data,
customer purchase patterns, and credit information
to observe that a cardholder has moved into a new
home. AmEx capitalizes on that life event by off er-
ing special Membership Rewards on purchases from
merchants in its network in the home-furnishings
retail category.
One insurance and financial services company
we know of also proved adept at tailoring products to
customers’ life events. Customers who lose a spouse,
for example, are fl agged for special attention from a
team that off ers them customized products. When a
checking account or credit-card customer gets mar-
ried, she’s a good cross-selling prospect for an auto
or home insurance policy and a mortgage. Likewise,
the fi rm targets new empty nesters with home eq-
uity loans or investment products and off ers renter’s
insurance to graduating seniors.
Reinventing Marketing
These shining examples aside, boards and C-suites
still mostly pay lip service to customer relationships
while focusing intently on selling goods and ser-
vices. Directors and management need to spearhead
Idea in Brief
Companies have powerful technologies
for understanding and interacting
with customers, yet most still depend
on mass media marketing to drive
impersonal transactions.
To compete, companies
must shift from pushing
individual products
to building long-term
customer relationships.
The marketing
department must
be reinvented as a
“customer department”
that replaces the CMO
with a chief customer
offi cer, makes product
and brand managers
subservient to customer
managers, and oversees
customer-focused
functions including R&D,
customer service, mar-
ket research, and CRM.
These changes shift
the fi rm’s focus from
product profi tability to
customer profi tability,
as measured by metrics
such as customer
lifetime value and
customer equity.
This organizational
transformation will
uproot entrenched
interests and so must
be driven from the top.
Large B2B fi rms are often advanced
in their customer orientation, and
some B2C companies are making
notable progress.
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the strategy shift from transactions to relationships
and create the culture, structure, and incentives nec-
essary to execute the strategy.
What does a customer-cultivating organization
look like? Although no company has a fully real-
ized customer-focused structure, we can see the
features of one in a variety of companies making
the transition. The most dramatic change will be the
marketing department’s reinvention as a “customer
department.” The fi rst order of business is to replace
the traditional CMO with a new type of leader—a
chief customer offi cer.
The CCO. Chief customer officers are increas-
ingly common in companies worldwide—there are
more than 300 today, up from 30 in 2003. Compa-
nies as diverse as Chrysler, Hershey’s, Oracle, Sam-
sung, Sears, United Airlines, Sun Microsystems, and
Wachovia now have CCOs. But too often the CCO is
merely trying to make a conventional organization
more customer-centric. In general, it’s a poorly de-
fined role—which may account for CCOs’ dubious
distinction as having the shortest tenure of all C-
suite executives.
To be eff ective, the CCO role as we conceive it
must be a powerful operational position, reporting
to the CEO. This executive is responsible for de-
signing and executing the fi rm’s customer relation-
ship strategy and overseeing all customer-facing
functions.
A successful CCO promotes a customer-centric
culture and removes obstacles to the flow of cus-
tomer information throughout the organization.
This includes getting leaders to regularly engage
with customers. At USAA, top managers spend two
or three hours a week on the call-center phones with
customers. This not only shows employees how seri-
ous management is about customer interaction but
helps managers understand customers’ concerns.
Likewise, Tesco managers spend one week a year
working in stores and interacting with customers as
part of the Tesco Week in Store (TWIST) program.
As managers shift their focus to customers, and
customer information increasingly drives decisions,
organizational structures that block information fl ow
must be torn down. The reality is that despite large
investments in acquiring customer data, most fi rms
underutilize what they know. Information is tightly
held, often because of a lack of trust, competition
for promotions or resources, and the silo mentality.
The CCO must create incentives that eliminate these
counterproductive mind-sets.
Ultimately, the CCO is accountable for increasing
the profi tability of the fi rm’s customers, as measured
by metrics such as customer lifetime value (CLV) and
customer equity as well as by intermediate indica-
tors, such as word of mouth (or mouse).
Customer managers. In the new customer de-
partment, customer and segment managers identify
customers’ product needs. Brand managers, under
the customer managers’ direction, then supply the
products that fulfi ll those needs. This requires shift-
ing resources—principally people and budgets—and
authority from product managers to customer man-
agers. (See the sidebar “What Makes a Customer Man-
ager?”) This structure is common in the B2B world. In
its B2B activities, Procter & Gamble, for instance, has
In a sense, the role of customer manager is the
ultimate expression of marketing (fi nd out what the
customer wants and fulfi ll the need) while the product
manager is more aligned with the traditional selling
mind-set (have product, fi nd customer).
Jim Spohrer, the director of
Global University Programs
at IBM, hires what UCal
Berkeley professor Morten
Hansen calls “T-shaped”
people, who have broad
expertise with depth in some
areas. Customer managers
will be most eff ective when
they’re T-shaped, combining
deep knowledge of particular
customers or segments
with broad knowledge of
the fi rm and its products.
These managers must also
be sophisticated data inter-
preters, able to extract
insights from the increasing
amount of information about
customers’ attitudes and
activities acquired by mining
blogs and other customer
forums, monitoring online
purchasing behavior, tracking
What Makes a Customer Manager?
Despite large investments in
acquiring customer data, most
fi rms underutilize what they know.
The CCO removes obstacles to the
fl ow of customer information.
SPOTLIGHT ON REINVENTION
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key account managers for major retailers like Wal-
Mart. They are less interested in selling, say, Swiff ers
than in maximizing the value of the customer rela-
tionship over the long term. Some B2C companies
use this structure as well, foremost among them re-
tail fi nancial institutions that put managers in charge
of segments—wealthy customers, college kids, retir-
ees, and so forth—rather than products.
In a customer-cultivating company, a consumer-
goods segment manager might off er customers in-
centives to switch from less-profitable Brand A to
more-profi table Brand B. This wouldn’t happen in
the conventional system, where brand and prod-
uct managers call the shots. Brand A’s manager isn’t
going to encourage customers to defect—even if
that would benefit the company—because he’s re-
warded for brand performance, not for improving
CLV or some other long-term customer metric. This
is no small change: It means that product managers
must stop focusing on maximizing their products’ or
brands’ profi ts and become responsible for helping
customer and segment managers maximize theirs.
Customer-facing functions. As the nexus of
customer-facing activity, the customer department
assumes responsibility for some of the customer-
focused functions that have left the marketing de-
partment in recent years and some that have not
traditionally been part of it.
CRM. Customer relationship management has
been increasingly taken on by companies’ IT groups
because of the technical capability CRM systems re-
quire, according to a Harte-Hanks survey of 300 com-
panies in North America: 42% of companies report
that CRM is managed by the IT group, 31% by sales,
and only 9% by marketing. Yet CRM is, ultimately, a
tool for gauging customer needs and behaviors—the
new customer department’s central role. It makes
little sense for the very data required to execute a
customer-cultivation strategy to be collected and an-
alyzed outside the customer department. Of course,
bringing CRM into the customer department means
bringing IT and analytic skills in as well.
Market research. The emphasis of market re-
search changes in a customer-centric company. First,
the internal users of market research extend beyond
the marketing department to all areas of the organi-
zation that touch customers—including fi nance (the
source of customer payment options) and distribu-
tion (the source of delivery timing and service). Sec-
ond, the scope of analysis shifts from an aggregate
view to an individual view of customer activities
and value. Third, market research shifts its atten-
tion to acquiring the customer input that will drive
improvements in customer-focused metrics such as
CLV and customer equity.
Research and development. When a product is
more about clever engineering than customer needs,
sales can suff er. For example, engineers like to pack
lots of features into products, but we know that cus-
tomers can suff er from feature fatigue, which hurts
future sales.
To make sure that product decisions refl ect real-
world needs, the customer must be brought into the
design process. Integrating R&D and marketing is a
good way to do that. Few companies have done this
better than Nokia in Asia, where its market share
exceeds 60%. In an industry where manufacturers
must introduce scores of new off erings every year,
the group’s ability to translate customer input about
retail sales, and using other
types of analytics. While brand
managers may be satisfi ed with
examining the media usage
statistics associated with their
product, brand usage behavior,
and brand chat in communities,
customer managers will take
a broader and more integra-
tive view of the customer. For
instance, when P&G managers
responsible for the Max Factor
and Cover Girl brands spent a
week living on the budget of
a low-end consumer, they were
acting like customer managers.
The experience gave these
managers important insights
into what P&G, not just the
specifi c brands, could do to
improve the lives of these
customers.
We’d expect the most
eff ective customer managers
to have broad training in the
social sciences—psychology,
anthropology, sociology, and
economics—in addition to an
understanding of marketing.
They’d approach the customer
as behavioral scientists rather
than as marketing specialists,
observing and collecting
information about them,
interacting with and learning
from them, and synthesizing
and disseminating what they
learned. For business schools
to stay relevant in training
customer managers, the
curriculum needs to shift its
emphasis from marketing
products to cultivating
customers.
Integrating R&D into the customer
department is a good way to
make sure product decisions
refl ect real-world needs.
RETHINKING MARKETING HBR.ORG
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CHIEF CUSTOMER
OFFICER
CEO
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT
RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT
MARKET
RESEARCH
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
PRODUCT MANAGERS
1 32
CUSTOMER SEGMENT
MANAGERS
features and value into hit product off erings is leg-
endary. Among its customer-focused innovation
tools is Nokia Beta Labs, a virtual developer commu-
nity that brings users and developer teams together
to virtually prototy
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