Despite what you may read in the popular press and even in some academic treatises, customers are not morons who are easily fooled. Anyone who has had serious experience in sales or has sat across a negotiation table knows just how smart customers are. However, even the most experienced marketing manager and salesperson may not understand the decision making of customers. With experience as buyers, customers develop very rational and habitual decision rules. Understanding these...
Economic volatility and uncertainty have become the order of the day. Some forecasters are using the “R” word (recession). Business is always difficult. In good times firms scramble to add capacity and meet demand while fending off the competition that is inevitably attracted to a robust and growing market. In bad times firms struggle to control costs and to encourage often reluctant customers to buy, while retaining enough personnel and resources to respond quickly when...
Customer satisfaction is all the rage. There are dozens of books on the topic and whole consulting practices devoted to helping firms find ways to improve customer satisfaction. Academic journals are filled with papers that seek to carefully parse the determinants of satisfaction and define its antecedents and consequences. Companies appoint people to positions with titles such as chief satisfaction officer and director of customer delight. There are few concepts in business that are as...
A senior manager in a Silicon Valley high technology firm surprised the members of his management team with the observation that they did not have enough market failures. Why would any executive want more market failures? The answer is found not so much in a desire to waste resources on bad ideas but on what market failures indicate about the creativity and innovativeness of a firm.
The marketing discipline is responsible for the creation and management of some of the largest and most important assets of the firm.
