The One to One Future [Paperback]

Don Peppers (Author), Martha Rogers (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 14, 1996 | Series: One to One

The One to One Future revolutionized marketing when it was first published. Then considered a radical rethinking of marketing basics, this bestselling book has become today's bible for marketers. Now finally available in paperback, this completely revised and updated edition--with an all-new User's Guide--takes readers step-by-step through the latest strategies needed for any business to compete, and succeed, in the Interactive Age.

Most businesses follow time-honored mass-marketing rules of pitching their products to the greatest number of people. However, selling more goods to fewer people is not only more efficient but far more profitable. The One to One Future is a radically innovative business paradigm focusing on the share of customer--one customer at a time--rather than just the share of market.

Authors Don Peppers and Martha Rogers reveal one to one strategies to:

* Find the 20 percent--or 2 percent--of your own customers and prospects who are the most loyal and who offer the biggest opportunities for future profit;

* Collaborate with each customer, one at a time, just as you now work with individual suppliers or marketing partners;

* Nurture your relationships with each customer by relying on new one to one media vehicles--not just the mail, but the fax machine, the touch-tone phone, voice mail, cell phones, and interactive television.

Leading-edge companies such as MCI, Lexus, Levi Strauss, and Nissan Canada, and thousands of smaller enterprises, have already adopted the one-to-one perspective. The strategies outlined in this book work just as well--often even better--for small companies, from two-person accounting firms to flower shops to furniture stores.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What will life be like after  mass marketing? Today, technology allows us to sell more goods to fewer people, which is far more efficient than selling fewer goods to more people. Peppers, an advertising executive, and Rogers, a marketing scholar, set out their new marketing paradigm in detail. A one-to-one competitor focuses on "share of customer" rather than the mass-marketer's "share of market." Learn to collaborate with the customer to build loyalty and build your opportunities for future profit. The strategies in this book work as well -- maybe even better -- for small companies as for the blue-chippers. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Book of the Year"
--Tom Peters

"Peters was wrong. This is not the book of the year. It's not even the book of the decade. It's one of the two or three most important business books ever written."
--George Gendron, Inc. magazine

The book that's revolutionizing marketing in the '90s."
--David Weinberger, Wired

"A unique perspective on the fundamental, structural changes that technology is already bringing to the real world of business competition."
--Esther Dyson, President, EDventure Holdings

"Hands down...the best marketing book for the interactive age."
--Andrew Jaffe, Vice President and Executive Editor, Adweek

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 429 pages
• Publisher: Currency (December 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385485662
• ISBN-13: 978-0385485661
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #872,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant concepts; desperately needs an editor. June 28, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

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.

36 of 43 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars What is a "Relationship?" May 14, 2000

By Theresa Welsh

Format:Paperback

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).

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Marketing Strategies for the Future January 16, 2000

By frumiousb VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Plan for the new marketing future with this book May 30, 1996

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Like Back to the Future July 25, 2011

By hea9696

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good overview for the general manager. August 30, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars A prophetic message at the time, still right on today December 21, 2006

By Josiah Mackenzie

Format:Paperback

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. Read more ›