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Interest in customer reacquisition has increased as firms embrace the concept of customer relationship management. Using survey and transactional data from defected subscribers of a publishing company, we investigate how defected customers evaluate their propensity to return to the company prior to any win-back offer. We introduce a new variable for relationship marketing, general willingness to return (GWR), and show that it is strongly and positively related to the actual return decision and the duration of the restarted relationship. Combining attribution theory elements with existing win-back explanations, which focus on economic, social, and emotional value perceptions, provides a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence the GWR to a former relationship. Importantly, we learn that regardless of whose fault it is, if the reasons for the relationship termination can change or are preventable and the firm can control those changes, then the defected customer has a higher general willingness to return to the former relationship. Also, we show that the duration of time absence before relationship revival moderates the impact of GWR on second relationship duration. Furthermore, we demonstrate that satisfaction prior to defection and the length of time absence provide a reasonable basis for distinguishing defected customers who differ in their GWR. By applying our findings, we derive recommendations for firms on how to position marketing communications to recapture defected customers according to their general willingness to return., Author(s): Doreen Pick[sup.1] , Jacquelyn S. Thomas[sup.2] , Sebastian Tillmanns[sup.3] , Manfred Krafft[sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) Freie Universität Berlin, Boltzmannstr. 20, 14195, Berlin, Germany (2) Cox School of Business, Southern [...]

In this commentary of "How Support for Black Lives Matter Impacts Consumer Responses on Social Media," we discuss issues related to the research approach, findings, and offer suggestions for future research. In this commentary, we focus on the racial justice movement popularly known as BlackLivesMatter (BLM). We begin our comments by briefly noting the history that led to the formation of the BLM organization and movement. This sets the stage for our comments on "How Support for Black Lives Matter Impacts Consumer Responses on Social Media"—an issue important for marketers who must evolve with an increasingly socially inspired economy. As BLM is a polarizing issue that is often misunderstood, we first note a potential internal validity issue with research on this topic. We then discuss issues specific to Blackout Tuesday, the intervention of interest in the paper. These include the comparability of the treatment and control platforms; the need for a clear baseline during this turbulent period; the possibility that the followers in the control condition were also treated; the parallel trends assumption; and the analysis and interpretation of the authors' headline finding that firms supporting Blackout Tuesday faced a backlash in terms of a reduction in follower growth. Throughout this comment, we offer suggestions for future research that tackles the response to social-political issues like BLM. History: K. Sudir served as the senior editor for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents guidelines for maximizing direct-marketing investments, focusing on managing customer acquisition and retention together rather than separately.

Multichannel customer management is the design, deployment, coordination, and evaluation of channels through which firms and customers interact, with the goal of enhancing customer value through effective customer acquisition, retention, and development. The authors identify five major challenges practitioners must address to manage the multichannel environment more effectively: a) data integration, (b) understanding consumer behavior, (c) channel evaluation, (d) allocation of resources across channels, and (e) coordination of channel strategies. The authors also propose a framework that shows the linkages among these challenges and provides a means to conceptualize the field of multichannel customer management. A review of academic research reveals that this field has experienced significant research growth, but the growth has not been distributed evenly across the five major challenges. The authors discuss what has been learned to date and identify emerging generalizations as appropriate. They conclude with a summary of where the research-generated knowledge base stands on several issues pertaining to the five challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more firms adopt a customer asset management approach to their business, it has become increasingly important to understand how customer management efforts relate to the financial performance of the firm. Of specific interest to shareholders is the relationship between traditional financial measures and customer-centric measures. The customer-centric measure that has received the most attention is customer lifetime value (CLV). In this article, the authors argue that the basic CLV model represents a useful foundation from which to begin to fill the gap between marketing actions and shareholder value. However, much work remains to be done before appropriate models can be developed that reflect the true value of a customer to the firm. Specifically, this article elaborates on how factors such as risk associated with customer behavior dynamics, social and competitive effects, and the effect of the product life cycle can be incorporated into the basic CLV model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]