Richard Huntington of Adliterate fame, offers an interesting viewpoint of CRM from the vantage point of a UK ad agency planner. This is a taste:
I own a car, I am a member of the AA, I have a number of bank accounts
with high street banks, a mortgage, donate to a few charities, have my
groceries delivered by a supermarket and and none of them manage a
relationship with me. Sure they send me loads of un-targeted direct
mail, a few blanket emails desperately trying to up-sell me and the odd
utterly pointless "magazine". But it is hardly what we had come to
expect from the CRM evangelists. Is the truth that it is practically
impossible to turn communications into a relationship and to
personalise the interaction sufficiently for it to make any sense? And
is the truth that creating something approximating a relationship
depends on so much technology that the actual relationship is with an
algorithm and not a brand at all.
Read the whole post – it’s quite interesting.
FOR MARKETING MANAGERS ONLY: Free 3-Day Pass to vSente’s Armory – Tool, techniques, wizards and manuals. Create a more effective and accountable
marketing organization. Convert your MARCOM department into a ROI
driven revenue engine. Also, click the links for information on our campaigns and workshops.