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This Reading on customer management sheds light on how companies should evaluate and manage their customers in order to grow profitably. Customer management allows marketing managers to inform investment decisions by drilling down into each customer's profitability or customer lifetime value (CLV). Historically, marketing managers have focused on providing value to customers, while largely ignoring the value they could get from customers. Realizing that customer lifetime value is a more important metric than simply increasing sales or market share, many companies are beginning to understand how the viability of their businesses is tightly linked to acquiring, retaining, and developing the right customers.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. "Consumer Behavior and the Buying Process" describes and analyzes 4 frameworks for understanding how consumers make decisions: cognitive versus emotional, high-involvement versus low-involvement, optimizing versus "satisficing," and compensatory versus noncompensatory decision making. This Core Curriculum Reading then presents the activities that occur during the 3 phases in the consumer buying process: pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase. It also analyzes consumer decision-making units, including roles played within such units, such as buyer, influencer, gatekeeper, and approver. The Reading includes an in-depth example of how a pharmaceutical company analyzed decision-making processes and decision-making units to develop marketing campaigns for a new product. It concludes with an exploration of 3 developments that profoundly affect consumers' decision-making process and units: social media, co-creation and customer involvement, and "conscience" marketing. Ultimately, this Reading prepares students to become marketers who can design effective advertising and marketing campaigns for products and services.

Without customers, businesses could not succeed. The term "Customer Centric" has therefore become synonymous with proactive business strategy worldwide. Primarily due to advances in technology, we are experiencing a fundamental shift in marketing - from a previous focus on companies to a spotlight on consumers - giving customers a much stronger voice in both the Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) sectors. Customer centricity fits three ways into an organization: as part of a knowledge management system (understanding the customer), as part of the development of strategic competence as a learning organization (building a customer-centric culture), and as a foundation for corporate strategy development and execution (serving the customer). This reading is organized into three main sections covering these topics and uses many examples from diverse industries to illustrate successes in each area. In addition, a Supplemental Reading examines the dynamic between customer centricity and innovation and also provides a contrarian view to the topic.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. This Reading explores how firms can create value for their customers. The goal of any business is to delight customers by understanding its customers' needs and to provide products and services to meet those needs. As a result, it is critical to understand what customers value and how firms can offer products and services by creating different types of value for their customers. The purpose of this Reading is to help students understand customers' perspectives on what they value and why. The Reading describes four types of customer value: economic, functional, experiential/psychological, and social. A Supplemental Reading looks specifically at how to manage customer expectations of services, as distinct from products.

This Core Curriculum Reading introduces the fundamentals of getting price right. First, it introduces value pricing, which requires a detailed understanding of the true economic value (TEV) that a firm's product creates for a specific customer. Value pricing also requires a decision to divide that value between the firm (providing the firm its incentive to sell) and the customer (providing the customer with an incentive to buy). After covering the key elements of the value-pricing approach, the Reading explains the concepts of price customization, consumer sensitivity to price, and the impact of price on the organization's profitability. Readers also learn how both quantitative research and managerial judgment are used to make optimal pricing decisions. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides.

This Core Curriculum Reading introduces (1) the importance of sales force design in implementing organizational strategy, and (2) the role of sales force management in linking structures and processes to behaviors. The material combines theoretical perspectives with real-world examples, drawn from the business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) and nonprofit sectors, to illustrate the range of challenges and opportunities in this field.

Core Curriculum Readings in Marketing cover fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in marketing. For classroom use in higher education, this Reading is accompanied by a Teaching Note, test bank, and exhibit slides. This Reading introduces two of the integral parts of any marketing strategy: segmentation and targeting. It covers, first, the methods, techniques, and variables with which a business initially uncovers the full range of its potential customers and then distinguishes between them. It then takes up how a company judges the potential of each market segment, selects the segments worth pursuing, and designs marketing programs to serve them. The Reading includes two interactive illustrations. Both drive the students to think more carefully about segmentation and targeting. The first, "Segmenting the Dog Food Market," shows how successfully marketing a product consumed by dogs depends on first understanding and segmenting their owners. The second, "Segmenting the Market for Early Pregnancy Test Devices," shows how the most important category for segmentation is not demographic or geographic, but concerned rather with consumer psychology and motivation. The Reading also includes a six-part video mini-case study on how GE Healthcare developed and applied segmentation for its Imaging Systems business.

This case follows a day in the life of Captain Denny Flanagan. A United Airlines pilot for nearly a quarter of a century and a former naval aviator, Flanagan has created and championed a campaign to radically change the nature of air travel - putting good customer service at the heart of everything the airline does and reaching back, in some way, to the golden age of air travel. Examples of his service include ordering food for passengers of delayed flights and phoning the parents of unaccompanied minors to reassure them of their children's safety.The success he has achieved is significant for a company that has historically received very poor customer service ratings. It raises questions about whether such exceptional service is good or bad for the organization. How can Flanagan's approach be replicated? Is it possible or even desirable to replicate it?

On April 4, 2013, a video game website reported that the next-generation Xbox console - due to be released by Microsoft the following month - would require an always-on Internet connection in order to operate. The new version of the SimCity game that had been released earlier that year with an always-on requirement had been a disaster. Hardcore gamers reacted negatively to the news. When the Xbox One console was officially revealed on May 21, Microsoft effectively confirmed that it would require an always-on connection for validating digital rights. Predictably, gamers reacted negatively, a response that was exacerbated when Microsoft's president of the interactive entertainment business, Don Mattrick, made dismissive statements about their concerns.

Eastern Condiments is a three-part case focused on the challenge of distributing spices in Southern India from 2008-2012. Case (A) describes the strategy and tactics that enabled Eastern Condiments to swiftly dominate the local market in Kerala by 2008, yet had poor results in the adjoining state of Karnataka in 2009-2012. Case (B) describes the new strategy to revive business in Karnataka and its consequences. When the market in Kerala starts to stagnate, it also has to revise strategy in its home market.

Eastern Condiments is a three-part case focused on the challenge of distributing spices in Southern India from 2008-2012. Case (A) describes the strategy and tactics that enabled Eastern Condiments to swiftly dominate the local market in Kerala by 2008, yet had poor results in the adjoining state of Karnataka in 2009-2012. Case (B) describes the new strategy to revive business in Karnataka and its consequences. When the market in Kerala starts to stagnate, it also has to revise strategy in its home market.

Eastern Condiments is a three-part case focused on the challenge of distributing spices in Southern India from 2008-2012. Case (A) describes the strategy and tactics that enabled Eastern Condiments to swiftly dominate the local market in Kerala by 2008, yet had poor results in the adjoining state of Karnataka in 2009-2012. Case (B) describes the new strategy to revive business in Karnataka and its consequences. When the market in Kerala starts to stagnate, it also has to revise strategy in its home market.

The case focuses on an innovative social media strategy by L'Oréal Paris to "listen" to consumers, then develop a product to meet consumer needs and market it. First, the company partnered with Google to track emerging styles and determine which (if any) would endure. Then it leveraged social media when deciding how to position, name and launch the product. A teaching note supplement with short recommendations for remote teaching of the case is available.

Lance Armstrong, a world-famous cyclist, was charged with using performance-enhancing drugs (i.e. “doping”). Armstrong had vehemently denied similar charges a few years earlier; however, this time there was substantial proof available and Armstrong accepted the charges. Subsequent to this news, most of the brands that had endorsed Armstrong terminated their contracts with him. As a cancer survivor, Armstrong had started Livestrong Foundation, an organization to support cancer patients, caregivers and survivors. This foundation depended heavily on sponsorships received by Armstrong. To protect his foundation from the negative impact of the doping controversy, Armstrong immediately resigned from both his post as chairman of Livestrong and from its board of directors. Despite his efforts, Livestrong was losing its sponsorships and a solution was needed to reduce the negative publicity, stop the loss of funding and identify new sources of funding.

To create the world's healthiest workforce, diversified health care giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) mandated participation in its "Culture of Health" program globally, customized by location, culture, and specific health needs to offer prevention-focused education, rewards for healthy behavior, and workplace environments that encouraged healthy employee behavior. By 2015, 90% of J&J's 128,000 employees would participate in Culture of Health programs; 80% would know their key health indicators (e.g., blood pressure, body-mass index, blood sugar, cholesterol); and 80% would have a "low risk" health profile. To hit these goals, J&J managers in 2014 sought to: 1) reduce national variation in program adoption and popularity, 2) do more to help employees ensure their overall-physical, mental, and spiritual-health, and 3) accurately measure the investments in and return on the program.

Lance Armstrong, a world-famous cyclist, was charged with using performance-enhancing drugs (i.e. "doping"). Armstrong had vehemently denied similar charges a few years earlier; however, this time there was substantial proof available and Armstrong accepted the charges. Subsequent to this news, most of the brands that had endorsed Armstrong terminated their contracts with him. As a cancer survivor, Armstrong had started Livestrong Foundation, an organization to support cancer patients, caregivers and survivors. This foundation depended heavily on sponsorships received by Armstrong. To protect his foundation from the negative impact of the doping controversy, Armstrong immediately resigned from both his post as chairman of Livestrong and from its board of directors. Despite his efforts, Livestrong was losing its sponsorships and a solution was needed to reduce the negative publicity, stop the loss of funding and identify new sources of funding.

At the close of open-enrollment in March of 2014, Kevin Counihan, CEO of Access Health CT, Connecticut's state health insurance exchange, stops to consider the success it has experienced so far and think about how to ensure its long-term sustainability.

The target market of Citibank cards in India was aligned with the profitability objectives of the company. However, if it continued with its current strategy, it faced the risk of being a niche player in a growing market and losing the profit potential from other segments and geographies in the near future. The CEO needed to reconsider the target market and finalize a marketing strategy in the face of the changing composition of the marketplace, the competition and the commercial imperatives of the credit card business. This was a critical decision that would have a long-term impact on resource deployment and budgeting.

The target market of Citibank cards in India was aligned with the profitability objectives of the company. However, if it continued with its current strategy, it faced the risk of being a niche player in a growing market and losing the profit potential from other segments and geographies in the near future. The CEO needed to reconsider the target market and finalize a marketing strategy in the face of the changing composition of the marketplace, the competition and the commercial imperatives of the credit card business. This was a critical decision that would have a long-term impact on resource deployment and budgeting.

A manager, preparing for an interview with Visa Inc., seeks to understand the nature of the global payments industry and Visa Inc.'s position within it. The case outlines the industry's history and current practice through extensive use of publicly reported information. The public information allows answers to some important questions. What does Visa Inc. do? How competitive is the industry? And what is the source of Visa Inc.'s competitive advantage? Student spreadsheet is available, see <a href=https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=66756>7B14A018</a>.