Managing Personal Communications: Direct and Database Marketing and Personal Selling
In this chapter, we will address the following questions:
- 1. How can companies conduct direct marketing for competitive advantage? (Page 286)
- 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of database marketing? (Page 288)
- 3. What decisions do companies face in designing and managing a sales force? (Page 289)
- 4. How can salespeople improve their selling, negotiating, and relationship marketing skills? (Page 295)
Marketing Management at StarHub
StarHub, one of Singapore’s largest telecommunications firms, has built a proprietary database to store information about customers’ interests and behavior, and help its business customers market to those consumers more effectively. For consumers, the company offers mobile and home phone services, Internet access, and cable television. For businesses, it offers network and mobile services, plus marketing assistance in communicating with customers in the database. StarHub collects data about what its customers view on television (and when) and what sites they visit on their smart phones and computers. Based on these details, StarHubs marketers can help businesses plan highly targeted, personalized communications for specific segments such as sports enthusiasts and style-conscious consumers, delivered through direct mail, e-mail, mobile apps, and other channels.
StarHub also uses its database marketing expertise to prepare and deliver communications promoting its own products based on what it knows about each customer’s viewing and browsing patterns. The company has won awards for direct marketing efforts such as the 4G4Good campaign, which invited customers to donate unused mobile minutes and data to local charities1
Personalizing communications and saying and doing the right thing for the right person at the right time are critical for marketing effectiveness, as StarHub’s marketers recognize.
