Each customer is an investment and represents hours of marketing efforts and expenditures. Each customer lost represents an investment that is no longer reaping dividends. Having customers, not merely acquiring customers, is crucial for business success.

In an article in the Journal of Marketing Research titled “Defensive Marketing Strategy by Customer Complaint Management: A Theoretical Analysis” by Claes Fornell and Birger Wernerfelt, numerous successful marketing strategies are identified. According to the authors, one crucial feature of marketing strategy is the company’s ability to identify and influence the flows of customers in and out of its franchise and into and out of the market. Fornell and Wernerfelt identify these flows as consisting of:

1) additional customer entry to the market,

2) brand shifting or change of patronage,

3) customer market exit, and

4) changes in purchase frequency.

This article is a continuation of Monday’s post. If you missed that one, I encourage you to go back and read it to be sure we are on the same page.

The Five Basic Survey Research Steps

Survey Research can be broken down into 5 simple steps. That is to say, breaking the process down is  simple. How difficult the individual steps are depends on the size and scope of your project. Try to take each step individually. This will keep you from getting overwhelmed and “stuck in the mud”.

The posts to follow will each address one of these steps. Later we can delve a little deeper into each step to flesh out each area.