Marketing Mix and CRM

How does Marketing Mix related to CRM? In many businesses, the functional areas of sales and marketing don't even use the same customer database. Simply installing CRM Software may change that, but software can't teach these groups to work together. That requires a plan and the whole point of planning is that it is done in advance. So let's review the proper order of CRM before moving on to the marketing mix discussion:

• Determine that you will put your customer at the center of your business objectives
  
• Develop a strategy for implementing this vision, including how the current functional silos will begin using the same data and aiming for the same customer loyalty goals
  
• Align your cross functional workflows to support your strategy.
  
• Develop work processes to support your workflow
  
• Develop software requirements that support your strategy, your workflow and your individual work processes
• Identify CRM software that supports all of the above and forget about the rest

Many businesses will work backwards which simply makes it impossible to achieve the results you and your customers are looking for. If being weird is different then I urge you to be weird.

The information you need to Market

Understanding your customer is critical in knowing what message to send to them and when to send it. There is considerable data that can be collected during the various interactions that occur between you and your customer. This data may be critical in determining how well you know your customer, and/or whether you need to find out more. Consider the time spent by customer service or support operations with your customers. This information can serve the sales organization which in turn may uncover even better information based on knowing this.

If everyone in your organization has the same goal, creating customer value which in turn creates value for your company, then this information becomes critical for the entire company to succeed, not just a single department.

The Marketing Mix

I always look at the marketing mix as Who, What and When. Now that I know my customers, I realize they aren't all the same. Apart from demographics (which I think are worthless all by themselves) you could have internal intelligence indicating problems in your process, or product quality or anything that is pushing customers away. This could be used to fix your process, construct your message, and/or determine how best to deliver it (Promotion).

You may also have information in your customer database that indicate what they've purchased, the quantity, the date and the amount. Using data such as this, in conjunction with other information you've collected from your customer facing operations, you could create a RFM scoring system for the Marketing folks so they can do all their fancy data driven marketing. Models like this are proven to predict customer defection and can be used to stave it off for a period of time. This is the basis for extending customer lifetime value.

By collecting data on many fronts and using it accordingly, it becomes much easier to identify Who you need to communicate with, When you need to communicate and What you need to communicate. This isn't all about marketing per se. Having a CRM strategy in place helps everyone understand how to communicate what, when. To me, everyone in your organization is a salesperson, a market and a customer service representative.

However you define marketing mix, just remember that marketing is only one functional part of a CRM initiative. Any silo left to itself will find a way to mess something up, especially from the perspective of the customer. So, make sure CRM in your organization includes the marketing folks. Your customers will thank you with increased loyalty and value to your business

Return to Customer Relationship Marketing from Marketing Mix