Marketing Practice

Customer Marketing Organization
The Key to Turbocharging Customer Marketing Performance

Stronger customer relationships have grown increasingly vital to the strategy of companies vying for competitive advantage in today’s complex multi-channel marketplace. Many proactive players, acknowledging the need for a greater focus on strengthening customer relationships, have invested millions of dollars in the databases and technology required to support a customer-centric approach. And they have been quick to launch pilot programs in many product areas. In spite of their efforts, many of these marketers have failed to elevate CRM performance to their targeted level.
Organization is a critical and often overlooked factor in driving CRM initiatives to better performance Clearly, the challenges are daunting. Many of these marketers – lacking the customercentered talent and skills to bring about significant change – have struggled to get their programs off the ground. They have found it challenging to work beyond their traditional business silos and to inspire managers to “embed the customer” in the fundamentals of how they run their businesses. Even after successful pilots in several product areas, they become deadlocked over how to pursue crossbusiness opportunities that might offer even greater potential. What then, is the missing piece of the puzzle needed to support companies in establishing more powerful CRM programs? CRM programs that create substantial value require four integrated elements: 1) a strategy for managing customer relationships that is tied to business economics; 2) compelling, well-executed programs that can drive customer value levers; 3) technology to support key activities, both data management and customer experience; and 4) the organization that underpins the ability to deliver and sustain the first three elements over time. (See Table 1.) Our research1 has shown that organization is a critical and often overlooked factor