INMA_A01.QXD

customisation of information requested by a site customer at an individuallevel. Mass

customisation involves providing tailored content to a group or individualwith similar

interests. It uses technology to achieve this on an economical basis. An example of mass

customisation is when Amazon recommends similar books according to what others in a

segment have offered, or if it sent a similar e-mail to customers who had an interest in a

particular topic such as e-commerce.

Other methods of profiling customers include collaborative filtering and monitoring

the content they view. With collaborative filtering, customers are openly asked what

their interests are, typically by checking boxes that correspond to their interests. A data-

base then compares the customer’s preferences with those of other customers in its

database, and then makes recommendations or delivers information accordingly. The

more information a database contains about an individual customer, the more useful its

recommendations can be. The best-known example of this technology in action can be

found on the Amazon web site (www.amazon.com), where the database reveals that cus-

tomers who bought book ‘x’ also bought books ‘y’ and ‘z’.

Figure 6.4 summarises the options available to organisations wishing to use the Internet

for mass customisation or personalisation. If there is little information available about the

customer and it is not integrated with the web site then no mass customisation is possible

(A). To achieve mass customisation or personalisation, the organisation must have suffi-

cient information about the customer. For limited tailoring to groups of customers (B), it is

necessary to have basic profiling information such as age, sex, social group, product cate-

gory interest or, for B2B, role in the buying unit. This information must be contained in a

database system that is directly linked to the system used to display web site content. For

personalisation on a one-to-one level (C) more detailed information about specific inter-

ests, perhaps available from a purchase history, should be available.

An organisation can use Figure 6.4 to plan their relationship marketing strategy. The

symbols X 1 to X 3 show a typical path for an organisation. At X 1 information collected

about customers is limited. At X 2 detailed information is available about customers, but

it is in discrete databases that are not integrated with the web site. At X 3 the strategy is

to provide mass customisation of information and offers to major segments, since it is

felt that the expense of full personalisation is not warranted.

CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

Collaborative
filtering
Profiling of customer
interest coupled with
delivery of specific
information and offers,
often based on the
interests of similar
customers.

Figure 6.4 Options for mass customisation and personalisation using the Internet

Limited

Mass customisation

Extensive

Low High

Site or e-mail personalisation

X 2 X 3

X 1

C.

One-to-one

personalisation

B.

Tailor content

to key segments

A.

Whole market

• broadcast