Customer Reviews

The One to One Future

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Peppers and Rogers may be the pioneers of one-to-one marketing techniques (or maybe even not), but they're terrible book writers. I've read their articles on the same topics, and they're much more concise. In the book, you learn all you really need to know in the first few paragraphs of each chapter; the rest is just regurgitation. I eventually gave up; I just couldn't read it anymore. You'd be better off reading a few articles, or someone else's books, unless you have an extremely high attention span or no background whatsoever in the concepts they discuss. They're very smart people, but if you've already learned the basics, this book will waste your time.

Peppers and Rogers wrote a pioneering work on reaching customers, that taught marketers to look beyond "segments" to the individual people who actually bought their products or services. But they make an essential mistake in confusing the customer's familiarity with a particular business with having a relationship. Relationships exist between people who know one another, and a business relationship is one in which the customer deals with the same provider for each transaction. An example is a personal trainer you go to each time you work out, or a using the same accountant (not just the same accounting firm) for many years at tax time, or going to the same hairstylist, even following her when she moves to a new salon. These are real relationships, but phoning a catalog company and talking to a different person each time, even if that person can check your past orders and already has the billing information, is NOT a relationship.

Using technology to make a transaction more efficient can be a service to customers. People do not always seek a relationship with their provider; sometimes they want anonymity, and the idea that the provider organization "knows" all about them can be scary. Only by distinguishing between real relationships and the kind of "pseudo-relationship" that Peppers and Rogers advocate can you sort out these issues.

To learn more about the concept of "relationship" versus the more common service encounter (between customer and provider who do not know each other and do not expect to interact again), read The Brave New Service Strategy by Dr. Barbara A. Gutek and Theresa Welsh. They postulate a service model that consists of a triangle of Customer, Organization and Provider (COP).

Clear and well-written exploration of market share approach to marketing versus the one-to-one approach to marketing. Explained well, and backed up with solid and very applicable examples.

It's important to remember that this book prepared the way for current Internet-based/personalized approaches to marketing. To a current marketeer, it may feel a bit dated (many of the examples are dependent on using snail mail and fax machines) but it given how many large IT projects are centered around database marketing, it's worthwhile reading for a lot of professionals and technical workers who may be missing part of the point of the systems they're developing.

This book helps bury mass marketing and even writes the tombstone "killed by relationship marketing." Chapter by chapter, this book spells out how to market to your customers instead of marketing your product. For instance, it shows you how to aim for customer share instead of market share. It is through examples that the authors show you how to win at 1:1 marketing. If you're in a competitive market or want to improve your marketing focus, read from it. Learn from it. And execute strategies from it. Neither you, your company, nor your customers will be dissapointed.

The One to One Future was recommended to me by a business school professor as one of the bibles of e-commerce. It correctly predicted that the technological revolution in selling would provide business the opportunity to develop unique relationships with each customer. It discusses how firms can capitalize on these relationships to capture the lion's share of business from the best customers. Peppers and Rogers develop excellent qualitative tools for understanding how intereactive technology is changing the seller-customer relationship; however, they gear their book to the general manager, not to the person implementing the technology. Also, the book is slightly dated: they give equal time to telephony and fax. Finally, they add some kooky third wave socio-political commentary on how the wired will inherit the earth and won't have to pay taxes. Aside from the Gingrich imitation, however, the book is a highly useful analysis of where the best firms will be heading in the future.

Amazing to read this book in 2011 and see how many of the predictions about mass customization marketing in the future actually came true. Video sharing sites like YouTube and eReaders like the Kindle now exist and drive the force to how advertisers reach their target consumers. In addition, Peppers & Rogers provide strong recommendations for developing marketing strategy that remain relevant to today's world.

Mass marketing believes in making one product for everyone, then shouting it's features over the thousands of competing products. An alternative to this approach is customizing your product for individuals, based on their needs and preferences.

When Don Peppers and Martha Rogers wrote The One to One Future in 1993, their message was very prophetic. The Internet and individual customization were not yet popular, yet the authors foresaw the effects technology would have on marketing.

The book focuses on three foundational ideas.

1. Aim for share of customer, not share of market
Instead of selling to as many customers as possible, ensure each person that buys your product buys only your product, and is completely happy with it. This way, you don't sell to people that will buy the competition's product half of the time.

2. Focus on your best customers
It's the classic Pareto Principle at work here. A small portion of your customers provide the majority of your profits. If you don't focus on these customers and "fire" the rest, the majority of your time and resources will be spent on an unprofitable minority.

3. Encourage customer dialog
To develop customized products and services, it is essential that you maintain communication with your prospects. While some of the techniques the authors suggest are dated, the principles remain true. Technology is the enabler of one to one marketing.

Over the past decade, the concept of customized marketing has become more and more popular. Companies such as Amazon and Dell have become extremely successful using this model, and Peppers and Rogers may well deserve the credit. Reading this book is an excellent way to understand how this movement started, and how your business can profit from it.

OK, it's 2006 so this book is a bit dated, but only in examples. The concepts are right on, and the companies that are succeeding today, online especially, are doing so with the strategies outlined in this book.

Basically 1:1 marketing is an interactive endeavor where much is learned from the customer and individualized for the customer. Emphasis is on quality relationships and specific marketing rather than bland bulk mailings that have to please everyone.

Benefits range from increasing customer retention, which can be very profitable, to maximizing ROI on advertising. Lifetime customers are the goal. With the knowledge obtained interactively, focus can be applied and special treatment given to the customers that are making us the most profit.

It will also be found that with this increased interactivity that complaints will be able to be handled effectively. Most who have a problem with a company never tell the company, they just tell their friends. Make it very easy for someone to complain in person, phone, or by survey cards. This feedback can be very revealing for your operations. An upset customer, properly treated, my re-purchase, and may even become an active referrer.

Think of customers as life-long assetts. Offer them a 'membership' in your organization. This will open the doorway for information to pour in that is only obtainable through interactivity.

Develop the feedback loop in your organization. Don't just push out and add to the hundreds of pounds of bulk mail and millions of impersonal emails sent (that nowadays end up in the trash folder). Become effective in this area, become 1:1.

Five Stars

A great, thought-provoking, idea-generating work. Contains very practical and implementable advice for businesses of all sizes. Especially useful for small companies who are trying to compete with the big guys.

I thought the concepts were great, but the after the first few pages of each chapter I couldn't keep my eyes open. I tried reading it on an exercise bike, but it didn't help. Good book, but some of the examples are unbelievable and dry.