Emerging Markets Can Use CRM.pdf

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Emerging
marketing
Sungmi Chung and Mike Sherman
Companies don’t need state-of-the-art tools, huge volumes
of customer information, and armies of experts to use continuous-
relationship marketing effectively.
hanks to microchips, companies in developed markets routinely
Tcollect and store huge volumes of information about their customers.
Thanks to continuous-relationship-marketing (CRM) tools, this valuable
resource doesn’t lie inert but is instead used to fashion sample customer
segments that can be used to test new offers. The winning ones are then
turned into full-scale marketing campaigns.
It seems unlikely that CRM would work this well in emerging markets,
where accurate customer data, advanced IT systems, and marketing experts
are all in shorter supply. Yet it does. Overall, from 10 to 60 percent of the
customers targeted in well-designed CRM-based campaigns in emerging
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PHILIPPE LARDY
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64 THE McKINSEY QUARTERLY 2002 NUMBER 2
markets sign up for the offer they receive—far more than the 5 to 20 per-
cent norm in developed markets. Although CRM activity in emerging
markets accounted for only 11 percent of the worldwide total in 2000, it
has been growing by 35 percent a year since then.
Why? For a start