Product Description

Strategies to build rock-solid customer loyalty in the age of E-commerce. Online retailers like Amazon.com and e-Bay are changing the face of shopping­­much as malls did in the 1970s­­and companies must master new rules to keep customers coming back. Loyalty.com shows companies how to shift their focus from impersonal database marketing to true customer relationship management (CRM), blending CRM and Web strategies to outline a program for lasting customer relationships. Case studies and real-world examples show CRM in action and provide E-commerce marketing strategies for both business-to-customer and business-to-business success. Packed with analysis tools and measurement techniques for holding customers in an increasingly fragmented marketplace, Loyalty.com covers­­then goes beyond­­Internet and e-mail to reveal comprehensive programs for keeping customers well into the 21st century.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408632 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 325 pages

Amazon.com Review
A few years ago, everybody with a product to sell got a dose of the same religion. In marketing circles, it's called customer relationship management, or CRM. In your house, it's probably called "How the hell did I end up with all these plastic cards in my wallet?" Your grocery store offers you special discounts if you bring one of those cards to wave over the scanner. If you travel, you probably have "loyalty cards" from airlines, hotel chains, and car-rental companies. All these discount and loyalty programs allow the companies to built substantial databases about you--your preferences and patterns--but they also depend on you to do the work, to lug those plastic cards around, keep track of your points and miles, and so on.

There are better ways to build customer relationships, argues Newell. He caused a stir in 1997 with The New Rules of Marketing, and now with Loyalty.com, he wants to cause another one by declaring that most companies attempting to create customer loyalty are going about it all wrong. In fact, he shows that areas with the most aggressive loyalty programs tend to have the least loyal customers--and vice versa. Today, writes Newell, the Internet has made market research cheaper and faster than ever. Software can be designed to predict what a customer will want before she knows she wants it, and the company can go straight to that particular customer to suggest she buy that particular product, rather than showering millions of potential customers with hundreds of product solicitations. It's not easy, and pitfalls abound, as Loyalty.com shows (the issue of customer privacy alone will be the subject of endless legislation in coming years). But the company that masters customer relations will be rewarded with both loyalty and profits. --Lou Schuler

Review
"Fred Newell brings CRM to life. Not just what but who and how and with what results. More 'real world' information packed into 300 pages than you could get in a year's woth of seminars, conferences and consultant meetings." -- Don Schultz, Professor, Northwestern University, endorsement

"The Internet is the quintessential platform on which true Customer Relationship Marketing can come to life. It is the epitome of effective one-to-one marketing, or at least it sshould be if correctly implemented. Frederick Newell,s latest book, loyalty.com, shows you the roadmap to success in a simple, straightforward way. Must reading for CRM practitioners and those who would aspire to be." -- Dan Davidson, Director Strategic Target Marketing, CheckMark Communications, Ralston Purina Company, endorsement

"We can't keep targeting our customers and blasting them with junk anymore. And we can't keep building loyalty with ever-deeper loss-making discounts. Now we are going to have to bite the bullet and start listening to our individual customers'needs, and find cost effective ways of meeting and influencing them. That's Customer Relationship Management and nobody tells it better than Fred. Newell. This is an important book for your career and your company." -- Tony Coad, Development Director, London Daily Telegraph, endorsement

"We wake up every morning thinking about how we can do even more to strengthen each and every customer relationship. This kind of thinking keeps us growing. loyalty.com gets you thinking a lot." -- Dick Hammill, EVP Marketing and Communications, The Home Depot, endorsement

"Well written...takes everything you wanted to know about customer relationships and places it in one resource." -- Ken Robb, Sr VP Marketing, Dick's Supermarkets, endorsement

From the Back Cover

"The Internet is the quintessential platform on which true Customer Relationship Marketing can come to life. It is the epitome of effective one-to-one marketing, or at least it should be if correctly implemented. Frederick Newell's latest book, Loyalty.com, shows you the roadmap to success in a simple, straightforward way. Must reading for CRM practitioners and those who would aspire to be."

­­Dan Davidson, Director of Strategic Target Marketing, CheckMark Communications, a division of the Ralston Purina Company.

"We wake up every morning thinking about how we can do even more to strengthen each and every customer relationship. This kind of thinking keeps us growing, Loyalty.com gets you thinking a lot."

­­Dick Hammill, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications, The Home Depot.

"In a friendly, conversational style Fred Newell demonstrates the critical need for Customer Relationship Management. He then goes on to break new ground with an excellent explanation of how the Internet is challenging and changing businesses today and what options we have available. This is a valuable book for those who wish to survive and prosper in the early 21st century."

­­Brian Woolf, author of Customer Specific Marketing.

"Well-written...takes everything you wanted to know about customer relationships and places it in one resources."

­­Ken Robb, Senior Vice President Marketing, Brodbeck Enterprises, Inc. d.b.a. Dick's Supermarkets.

"Fred leads by example again! In fine fashion, Fred. demonstrates the great care and commitment critical to successful CRM by delivering ALL of the goods on CRM with his own established brand of no-nonsense, penetrating genius."

­­Todd N. Alexander, Executive Vice President, Kreber Graphics, Inc.

"This is prerequisite reading for everyone in the organization: operations, merchandising, finance, distribution, human resources, and of course marketing if you expect your company to win the battle for share of wallet!"

­­Terry E. Maloy, Vice President Marketing, SAM'S Club.

"We can't keep targeting our customers and blasting them with junk anymore. And we can't keep buying with ever-deeper, loss-making discount. Now we are going to have to bite the bullet and start listening to our individual customers' needs, and find cost-effective ways of meeting and influencing them. That's Customer Relationship Management and nobody tells it better than Fred Newell. This is an important book for your career and for your company."

­­Tony Coad, Development Director, The Daily Telegraph, London.

"Fred Newell brings CRM to life. Not just what but who and how and with what results. More "real world" information packed into 300 pages than you could get in a year's worth of seminars, conferences, and consultant meetings. Get this book."

­­Don E. Schultz, Professor, Northwestern University.

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Customer Reviews

More about loyalty than .com
I had not read any marketing books for a while and I was curious to discover loyalty.com. A study of the impact of the Internet on Customer Relationship Management looked promising. All in all, this book is quite interesting but I expected more. The focus is more on the benefits of CRM than on the impact of the Internet on the field. If you are already convinced that successful companies treat their clients personally and adapt their marketing campaigns to their profiles, you already know the main message of the book. The numerous examples mentioned in the book will confirm what you thought and believed in. What about the Internet? Well, it appears that CRM still relies on old recipes like loyalty cards, call centers and personalized mail. Of course, gathering information about customers visiting a web-site helps and e-mails are a new and cheap way of communication. Finally, CRM seems more appropriate to B2C than B2B. Most examples in the book are companies selling to individuals. The only chapter dealing with B2B is not very detailed. I cannot say that I did not enjoy reading this book even though I did not learn much. Marketing books are often refreshing readings for people not actively involved in sales and marketing. loyalty.com is well written and properly documented. It is a good introduction to CRM.

Super!
This superb work clearly shows why customer loyalty cannot be bought but can be earned. The book ties together concepts of customer permission, loyalty programs, and database marketing. The main premise is simple: if a marketer can understand what a customer values and then delights her by giving it to her, when she wants it, in a way she desires it, the results will be amazing. Not only will the customer pay full price, but the marketer can win the customer's loyalty to a depth that cannot be achieved with points programs alone. The relationship will be enriched by the marketer's attention to and action on what the customer thinks is important. Newell gives plenty of anecdotal examples taking into account electronic marketing in both the B2C and B2B spaces, as well as brick and mortar cases.

Repackaged Database Marketing
The book is chock full of examples and anecdotes but really has no new worthwhile conceptualizations or insights to make it worth reading. If you don't know anything about database marketing, then you will get something out of this book. If you are familiar with the basic concepts of customer database analysis, loyalty programs and relationship marketing, there is nothing new here. In fact a much better introduction to all those concepts is The Loyalty Effect by Reichenheld or Customer Connections by Wayland and Cole. The subtitle mentions the dot com world, but the book has little to say about the Internet. The book really does not cover CRMs (as oppsed to database marketing) in that it fails describe how CRM systems work and what database, modeling and communications platforms are required to implement them.