CRM

7

A Role for Marketing-Oriented

Ct?dl/l Technologies

7.1

A change of control?

Chapter 6 dropped some heavy hints that CRM needs to change to embrace

certain functions that would traditionally have resided within the marketing

department. This does not mean that marketing personnel will lose control; to

date, however, the marketing function has not exercised control over CRM

strategy. Recent research work conducted in the United Kingdom by the

Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) highlights the fact that marketing

professionals may not have the necessary credentials to own the CRM brief in

the future, unless they change the way they do things.

The U.K. Chartered Institute of Marketing report, "Connected Econ-

omy~The Impact of E-Business on Marketing Marketers," from the

University of the West of England Business School concludes, "There is a

yawning gap between the capabilities of new technologies and the realities of

life for the modern marketing manager." The report continues:

A fantasy just a decade ago, many new media are now part of the

consumer's day-to-day experience. But many senior marketers ques-

tioned for the study concurred that new technologies have not

dramatically altered business practice. Theories of business change

are largely ahead of what is happening on the ground, while much of

the data now so easily accessible are rarely put to good use.

So how will change happen? What developments are likely to result in a

merger between CRM and marketing disciplines?

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