It is a file containing information about :
1. Individual
2. Customers
3. Potential customers
that is relevant to the marketing process. This file can be simple or sophisticated.
For centuries, businesspeople recorded customer information on slips of paper or in notebooks. some organization still use these manual database.
Example: in contrast, companies like American Express and Macy's have computer database that contain millions of names. Some of these names have hundreds of pieces of information.
whether the database uses simple or sophisticated technologies, the purpose is the same
To gain a better understanding of customers in order to increase the customer's satisfication and the oragnization's objectives.
Although some organizations still use paper database, the focus of this book is on computer database and how data about customers are stored, manipulated, and analyzed on a computer.
Where do the data about customer come from???
Companies build marketing database from number of sources. like Keri Lee, if you receive product offers in the mail, such as catalog, you are on a database. Your name could have been added to the database from a telephone book list, a membership list, or lists of public notices ( like a home purchase. when you respond to an offer for a product, your name usually gets added to another database.
There are companies that specialize in gathering and renting lists of customers. you might be surprised at the range and diversity of available list.
Example; as a marketer, you could rent lists of female corporate decision makers, residential pool owners, neuroscientists, serious collectors of plates, coins, and stamps, and people who have contributed to humanitarian causes.
In deciding on which list to select, you should match the characteristics of these lists to your target market. often the lists include detailed demographic and psychographic data.
Marketer do need customers database because for the marketing planning purpose, marketing do need to know what their customer preference and what is their customer frequent purchase, in order to do right marketing at the right customer. with the database collected the marketing plan will goes smoothly and will be successful.
