Statistical Methods in Customer Relationship Management

2.2 The Importance of Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition is at the fore for any organization when designing CRM campaigns. Over the past century, we have seen the evolution of customer acquisition techniques spurred by technological advancements and customer heterogeneity. Whether we are talking about improvements in data collection capabilities, data storage capacities, or the ability to analyze data collected from customer behavior and profiles, these improvements have paved the way toward increasingly intricate and focused acquisition techniques. From mass-level acquisition techniques like Ford's Model T ‘universal car,’ to segment-level acquisition strategies such as Kellogg's Special K weight-loss brand, and finally to one-to-one acquisition such as Dell PC customization, companies have had a growing ability and need to tailor their offerings as well as their acquisition methods to individual customers.

From a traditional manager's perspective, a successful and positive customer acquisition strategy involves attaining the highest possible customer acquisition rate by implementing mass-level strategies. Any combination of mass marketing (radio, billboards, etc.) and direct marketing (telemarketing, mail, e-mail, etc.) would be implemented in order to target ‘eligible’ customers rather than ‘interested’ ones. This meant searching for customers who, regardless of their purchasing habits or particular tastes, could not be ruled out of using the product based on general ...