When the going gets tough

12 Dec 08 - Mark Klein

We all know these are tough economic times. That message was reinforced for me again yesterday when I got a call out of the blue from a marketing analyst at a company not on my radar screen. She was charged by her VP with setting marketing priorities for next year. Specifically, she was asked to make marketing recommendations to help her company survive during this recession. The analyst was casting a broad net and found me.

After a short discussion, I found that her company’s revenues were excessively skewed more to new customer revenue compared to revenue from existing customers, so a sure answer to her question is to ramp up existing customer marketing. The justification for that effort is clear: you know who the customers are, you can figure out what they are likely to buy next, and making that sale is a lot less costly than acquiring a new customer. There is definitely gold in your transaction data.
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