Profitable Customer Management: A Study in Retail Banking

The increasing focus of relationship marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) studies on issues of customer profitability has led to the emergence of an area of research on profitable customer management. Nevertheless, there is a notable lack of empirical research examining the current practices of firms specifically with regard to the profitable management of customer relationships according to the approaches suggested in theory. This thesis fills this research gap by exploring profitable customer management in the retail banking sector. Several topics are covered, including marketing metrics and accountability; challenges in the implementation of profitable customer management approaches in practice; analytic versus heuristic (‘rule of thumb’) decision making; and the modification of costly customer behavior in order to increase customer profitability, customer lifetime value (CLV), and customer equity, i.e. the financial value of the customer base. The thesis critically reviews the concept of customer equity and proposes a Customer Equity Scorecard, providing a starting point for a constructive dialog between marketing and finance concerning the development of appropriate metrics to measure marketing outcomes. Since customer management and measurement issues go hand in hand, profitable customer management is contingent on both marketing management skills and financial measurement skills. A clear gap between marketing theory and practice regarding profitable customer management is also identified. The findings show that key customer management aspects that have been proposed within the literature on profitable customer management for many years, are not being actively applied by the banks included in the research. Instead, several areas of customer management decision making are found to be influenced by heuristics. This dilemma for marketing accountability is addressed by emphasizing that CLV and customer equity, which are aggregate metrics, only provide certain indications regarding the relative value of customers and the approximate value of the customer base (or groups of customers), respectively. The value created by marketing manifests itself in the effect of marketing actions on customer perceptions, behavior, and ultimately the components of CLV, namely revenues, costs, risk, and retention, as well as additional components of customer equity, such as customer acquisition. The thesis also points out that although costs are a crucial component of CLV, they have largely been neglected in prior CRM research. Cost-cutting has often been viewed negatively in customer-focused marketing literature on service quality and customer profitability, but the case studies in this thesis demonstrate that reduced costs do not necessarily have to lead to lower service quality, customer retention, and customer-related revenues. Consequently, this thesis provides an expanded foundation upon which marketers can stake their claim for accountability. By focusing on the range of drivers and all of the components of CLV and customer equity, marketing has the potential to provide specific evidence concerning how various activities have affected the drivers and components of CLV within different groups of customers, and the implications for customer equity on a customer base level.

Kaikki vaikuttaa kaikkeen : Kausatiiviset lauserakenteet terveysaiheisessa internet-aineistossa

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan sellaisia kausatiivisia lauserakenteita, joissa kausaation osapuolet ovat ei-inhimillisiä olioita. Työn tavoitteena on tarkastella eri kausatiivirakenteiden yhteneväisyyksiä ja eroavaisuuksia sen suhteen, miten ne kausaatiota kuvaavat, sekä luoda tämän analyysin pohjalta jonkinlainen kokonaiskuva siitä, miten suomen kielessä käsitteistetään kausaatiota. Työn aineistona on valikoima terveysaiheisia artikkeleita verkkosivuilta www.tohtori.fi ja www.verkkoklinikka.fi. Tästä tekstimassasta poimittiin käsin kaikki sellaiset lauseet, jotka kuvasivat kahden ei-inhimillisen olion välistä kausaaliyhteyttä. Tämä lauseaineisto jaoteltiin eri kausaatiorakenteisiin sen mukaan, mikä oli kunkin esiintymän kausaaliyhteyttä kuvaava keskusargumentti. Kausatiiviset rakennetyypit ovat seuraavat: aineistossa keskeiset AIHEUTTAA-rakenne, MUUTTAA-rakenne, VAIKUTTAA-rakenne, AIHEUTUA-rakenne ja LIITTYÄ-rakenne sekä esiintymämäärältään edellämainittuja harvinaisemmat JOHTAA-rakenne, ESTÄÄ/MAHDOLLISTAA-rakenne, EDISTÄÄ-rakenne, RIIPPUArakenne, OLLA SYYNÄ/SEURAUKSENA -rakenne ja OLLA TAUSTALLA -rakenne. Rakenteita analysoidaan kognitiivisen kielentutkimuksen ja konstruktiokieliopin metodein. Kielitieteellisistä kausaation tutkimuksista tärkeimpinä teorialähteinä ovat Talmy (1976) sekä Kemmer ja Verhagen (1994). Aineiston rakenteista tarkastellaan erityisesti perussyntaksia, predikaation osallistujien semanttisia rooleja sekä rakenteen avulla kuvatun kausaalisuhteen luonnetta ja sen osapuolten ominaisuuksia. Näin tuodaan ilmi, miten eri tavat kielellistää kausaatiota eroavat toisistaan. Päätelminä todetaan, että kausaation kielellistämiskeinot ovat monipuolisia ja tarkastellut rakenteet eroavat toisistaan monessa suhteessa. Kausatiivirakenteita voi luokitella mm. sillä perusteella, onko niiden keskusargumenttina predikaattiverbi vai nomini ja kopula, ovatko ne aineistossa yleisiä vai marginaalisia ja kuvaavatko ne vahvaa vai heikkoa kausaalisuhdetta. Kaikkiaan on tuloksena, että aineiston kausatiivirakenteet ovat joko transitiivisia lauserakenteita tai käyttävät hyväkseen spatiaalisuutta syy seuraus-suhteen ilmaisemisen keinona. Työstä nousee esiin monenlaisia jatkotutkimusaiheita: Ovatko kausatiivisuuden keinot samanlaisia myös muissa kirjallisissa tekstilajeissa ja puhutussa kielessä? Miten suomen ilmaisukeinot vertautuvat muihin kieliin? Etenkin esiintymämäärältään vähäisistä rakenteista voisi lisäksi löytää uusia ominaisuuksia tutkimalla niitä tätä työtä laajemmasta aineistosta.

Internet- karttapalveluiden arviointi ja kehitys strategisessa maankäytön suunnittelussa, tapaustutkimuksena Esikaupunkien renessanssi -hanke

Participation is located in a living and complex environment. Traditional means of participation are only partially able to meet the new environmental requirements. In need are forms of participation which take into account the new opportunities of the environment and residents expertise. Internet map applications are an important channel of participation which potential is in many respects as unexplored and unutilized. They are commonly in inventory the perspectives, bringing out the concerns of the area, and only little for discussing about solutions. Interpretation is usually made by designer. This study focuses on evaluation and development of Internet map applications in strategic land use planning. Subject matter is dealt from designer and the inhabitants point of view. City Planning Department of Helsinki s Esikau-punkien Renessanssi -project and the associated SoftGIS survey acts as the case study. In the beginning of the study I tried to recognize the new environment in which the Internet map applications are placed. The research question is, what kind of challenges and opportunities the e-participation confronts in information society, and what kind of requirements the environmental creates for development of an application. In chapter three I evaluate how successfully these requirements are met in Esikau-punkien Renessanssi -project. I m trying to examine how the application would look like if the environment and the characteristics of the project are met better. The approach is experimental and I try to find new ways to take advantage of Internet maps. I try not to be too limited to current projects and studies. For example, I try to examine how social media and Web 2.0 opportunities can be utilized, and how the learning and shaping nature of planning may be reached in Internet map environment. In chapter four I have developed a new concept for the Esikaupunkien Renessanssi map application, and made images to visualize its operation in practice. I collect all the data in the research and gather it into a new service. The aim is to create a better application for Esikaupunkien Renessanssi -project, which takes into account the living and complex environment of participation and responds to threats and opportunities arising from it. The presented outcome is in many respects different from the current query. In the new service the role of residents is to interact and learn. The traditional standing of the Internet maps and the position of resident as one-sided information donor are questioned. In the concept, the residents innovate and make interpretations too. Influences are taken from a number of modern applications and for example services that make use of social media. The user experience is intended to be interactive, fast and easy. The idea is that the service keeps you up to date with planning matters, not the other way around. Service guides inhabitants, striving to achieve a deeper knowledge of the project's objectives as well as the dynamics and realities that different individuals experience.