Customer lifetime

Organizations should recognize the potential length of lifetime of new and existing customers as well as their short-term value when allocating marketing budget and priorities. This should ideally be translated into an allowable cost per sale, which is a well-established metric in the campaign evaluation and review process. Scores in the CMAT-R sample, and in the wider CMAT data set, are very poor on this issue. One exception to that rule is found in the CMAT-R sample in the publishing sector. It is likely that inability to calculate and use lifetime value is a function of weakness in ability to isolate complete views of individual customers and possibly a weakness in resourcing of the analysis and planning function. Outsourcing this analysis to specialists, if needed, could be a good option in the short term.