What's a customer really worth? Can you find out, without endlesslycomplex modeling? And once you know, what should you do with thatknowledge? Managing Your Customers as Investments has the answers.You'll learn simple ways to get reliable customer value information--ina form you can use. You'll discover how to use it to measure marketingeffectiveness, generate improvements throughout the entire customerrelationship lifecycle, and improve decision-making. Everyone tells youto manage your business around customers. This book gives you the toolsto do it.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
What's a customer really worth? Can you find out, without endlesslycomplex modeling? And once you know, what should you do with thatknowledge? Managing Your Customers as Investments has the answers.You'll learn simple ways to get reliable customer value information--ina form you can use. You'll discover how to use it to measure marketingeffectiveness, generate improvements throughout the entire customerrelationship lifecycle, and improve decision-making. Everyone tells youto manage your business around customers. This book gives you the toolsto do it.
About the Author
About the Authors
SUNIL GUPTA is Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business at the Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York. He has also taught at UCLA and the Harvard Business School; conducted seminars and consulted with companies worldwide; appeared on CNN, BBC, and PBS; and been quoted in publications, including The New York Times, The Financial Times, and The Washington Post.
Gupta's expertise is in marketing strategy, pricing, and customer management. He has published extensively on these topics. His research papers have won several awards. He serves on the editorial boards of six journals.
He is the cofounder and president of the EX Group, a strategic consulting group that specializes in customer management. He also served as an academic trustee of the Marketing Science Institute. He holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
DONALD R. LEHMANN is George E. Warren Professor of Business at the Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York. His research interests include modeling individual and group decision-making, empirical generalizations and meta-analysis, the introduction and adoption of new products and innovations, and measuring the value of marketing assets such as brands and customers. He has taught courses in marketing, management, and statistics at Columbia and has also taught at Cornell, Dartmouth, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Lehmann has published in and served on the editorial boards of several journals and was founding editor of Marketing Letters. His books include Market Research and Analysis, Analysis for Marketing Planning, Product Management, and Meta-Analysis in Marketing.
He served as executive director of the Marketing Science Institute and as president of the Association for Consumer Research. He is the recipient of many awards, including the 2000 Paul D. Converse award and the AMA McGraw Hill-Irwin distinguished marketing educator award. He holds an M.S.I.A. and Ph.D. from the Krannert School of Purdue University.
Gupta and Lehmann, along with Joel Steckel, are coauthors of Marketing Research.
© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Understanding that a businesses customers are one of it's greatest assets is not a new or novel idea. After all these are the people that pay the bills. But how can you fairly asses what the true value of any one customer is? Is it all based on total revenue, profit margin or market share? Questions that are difficult to answer and not really a black and white issue. This book teaches the readers how to see the link between customer value and firm value. It also does a great job of showing you which aspects of customer management are the most critical. One of the rules they want you to look at is long term relationships and strategies and not just the short term fix.
There were two great aspects of the book that made it one that can easily be used. First the authors made the decision to keep the approaches simple. You did not have to work through some multiple step process with NASU like calculations. The authors theory is that simple and intuitive concept can be implemented by almost all management thus insuring a better adoption rate. The second aspect I felt was valuable was that the book was full of real life examples. It was far easier to see how the process worked when you could relate to the examples provided. Overall I really enjoyed the book. It was informative, had great ideas and is one that can make a difference in any organization.
There were two great aspects of the book that made it one that can easily be used. First the authors made the decision to keep the approaches simple. You did not have to work through some multiple step process with NASU like calculations. The authors theory is that simple and intuitive concept can be implemented by almost all management thus insuring a better adoption rate. The second aspect I felt was valuable was that the book was full of real life examples. It was far easier to see how the process worked when you could relate to the examples provided. Overall I really enjoyed the book. It was informative, had great ideas and is one that can make a difference in any organization.
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Ultimately a business is worth only as much as the value of its customers.
Sunil Gupta, and Donald Lehman, both Columbia Business School Professors of Business, present a practical view of marketing that weaves both its financial and customer aspects.
The concept of lifetime value of a customer is presented in a straightforward way. The information is useful to anyone charged with improving financial accountability and managing ROI.
Although the concept of customer value is not new, the two professors argue it is better to be "vaguely right, than precisely wrong" when getting started. The book shows how to use publicly available information and a simple formula to estimate the lifetime value of a customer for a publicly traded firm.
Unlike the internet age, the two professors show that for most firms, the lifetime value of a customer rarely exceeds 4.5 times his or her annual margin.
By the time you finish this book you will think of customers as assets and be convinced that expenditures directly related to acquiring and maintaining them be treated accordingly.
Sunil Gupta, and Donald Lehman, both Columbia Business School Professors of Business, present a practical view of marketing that weaves both its financial and customer aspects.
The concept of lifetime value of a customer is presented in a straightforward way. The information is useful to anyone charged with improving financial accountability and managing ROI.
Although the concept of customer value is not new, the two professors argue it is better to be "vaguely right, than precisely wrong" when getting started. The book shows how to use publicly available information and a simple formula to estimate the lifetime value of a customer for a publicly traded firm.
Unlike the internet age, the two professors show that for most firms, the lifetime value of a customer rarely exceeds 4.5 times his or her annual margin.
By the time you finish this book you will think of customers as assets and be convinced that expenditures directly related to acquiring and maintaining them be treated accordingly.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Roy A. Young
Format:Hardcover
The need for a company to be customer-oriented is today a widely accepted idea, not just by marketers but by all executives. By my count, in 2004 alone, there were at least 15 major books published on the importance of managing all organizations with customer focus. But that's easier said than done. Thankfully now, in 2005, a new book can help you close the gap between knowledge and results by using vocabulary, processes and metrics to drive a customer-centric strategy. It should be on the very top of your reading list.
Managing Customers as Investments, by Columbia Business School marketing professors, Sunil Gupta and Donald Lehmann, and published by Wharton School Publishing, is practical and accessible. Rare among academics, the authors, who have published many papers in scholarly journals where complexity and precision are revered, have the ability and wisdom to make their subject simple, clear and useful to marketers in all industries. With examples and case studies, they make it easy to understand how to apply their models to your business. Read it and you will learn invaluable systems to demonstrate to your CEO and CFO that Marketing is the engine of the enterprise.
Gupta and Lehmann argue that if customers are the primary source of cash flow for all organizations, Marketing must be managed in three dimensions: customer acquisition, customer profitability and customer retention. These are the three Cs of Marketing with financial consequences -- not to be confused with the three Cs of market analysis, including customer needs, company (core competencies) and competition, and very different from the traditional four Ps of marketing management, including product, price, promotion and place where the focus is purely on sales or market share. Indeed, customer acquisition, customer profitability and customer retention are significant parts of the CEO and CFO agenda because they are the dimensions that drive the entire business strategy. And, ultimately, managing Marketing with these three Cs as the focus will lead to a position of power in the executive suite. The authors show you how.
Managing Customers as Investments, by Columbia Business School marketing professors, Sunil Gupta and Donald Lehmann, and published by Wharton School Publishing, is practical and accessible. Rare among academics, the authors, who have published many papers in scholarly journals where complexity and precision are revered, have the ability and wisdom to make their subject simple, clear and useful to marketers in all industries. With examples and case studies, they make it easy to understand how to apply their models to your business. Read it and you will learn invaluable systems to demonstrate to your CEO and CFO that Marketing is the engine of the enterprise.
Gupta and Lehmann argue that if customers are the primary source of cash flow for all organizations, Marketing must be managed in three dimensions: customer acquisition, customer profitability and customer retention. These are the three Cs of Marketing with financial consequences -- not to be confused with the three Cs of market analysis, including customer needs, company (core competencies) and competition, and very different from the traditional four Ps of marketing management, including product, price, promotion and place where the focus is purely on sales or market share. Indeed, customer acquisition, customer profitability and customer retention are significant parts of the CEO and CFO agenda because they are the dimensions that drive the entire business strategy. And, ultimately, managing Marketing with these three Cs as the focus will lead to a position of power in the executive suite. The authors show you how.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Your customers are your most valuable, manageable asset
One of the first rules of business school is that it costs significantly less to keep a repeat customer than it does to acquire a new customer. Read more
Published on March 10, 2009 by Rebecca Clement
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Quality, Poor Quantity
The substance of the information presented was genuinely useful knowledge. The first 2 or 3 chapters really give a good analysis of the value of a customer. Read more
Published on September 19, 2007 by AJ Spector
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting customer life time model but a bit weak in customer...
Book is centered around understanding customer life time value and what is the required mind set and strategy to drive customer life time value as a business driver. Read more
Published on March 16, 2007 by Mikko Marsio
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Customer Lifetime Value approach to business strategy
"Managing Customers..." does a wonderful job of providing a holistic approach to customer lifetime value (CLV). Read more
Published on December 17, 2006 by D. Goldstein
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended to all marketing executives
How much are your customers worth? If financiers and investors had bothered to ask themselves this basic question, they might have prevented the Internet bubble and other expensive... Read more
Published on July 12, 2006 by Rolf Dobelli
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important metrics for effective customer management
Are you spending more on your customers than they are worth? That is the question these authors attempt to answer in this book. Read more
Published on December 12, 2005 by Harold McFarland
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling Case for Factoring Customer Lifetime Value Into Corporate...
The book's co-authors quote management guru Peter Drucker, who just passed away at the age of 95, in the opening paragraph of the acknowledgements: "Innovation and marketing are... Read more
Published on November 17, 2005 by Ed Uyeshima
5.0 out of 5 stars
New Measurements in Measuring Customer Value
Only once in a while a book comes along that open whole new areas of thinking, this is one of them. Read more
Published on November 16, 2005 by John Matlock
5.0 out of 5 stars
Customers are investments, not all are right for you
It is a fallacy to blindly state that the customer is always right. That is not the case; some customers are so costly that it is much cheaper to simply disallow their activities. Read more
Published on October 31, 2005 by Charles Ashbacher
5.0 out of 5 stars
How much are your customers worth?
Although every company knows its customers are valuable, the important question is just how valuable they are. Read more
Published on October 22, 2005 by Wharton School Book Reports
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 18
books:
See all 18 books this book cites
3
books
cite this book:
- Marketing Research by Donald R. Lehmann on 5 pages
- Risk Management by W H Snider in Front Matter
- Management Science by Laurence Moore in Front Matter
- Principles of Corporate Finance: WITH Student CD, Ethics in Finance PowerWeb AND Standard and Poor's by Richard A. Brealey in Back Matter
- Risk Management by Michel Crouhy in Front Matter
See all 18 books this book cites
- What Is Marketing? by Alvin J. Silk on page 197
- Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth (SAS Institute Inc.) by Jill Dyche on page 31
- Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Passenger Is Flying the Plane by Nawal K. Taneja on page 214
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