Important notice: Please read the syllabus carefully before enrolling and/or contacting the instructors. E-mails that can be answered by reading the syllabus will not receive a response.

Fostered by data-rich marketing environments, many companies adopt a shift from a product-centric firm strategy towards focusing on the individual customer as the most critical unit of marketing decision making. Such a customer-centric view considers customers as intangible assets of a firm, which need to be valued and managed carefully. Therefore, the proactive management of a firm’s customer base has become a crucial focus for many companies as it promises to be a key determinant of future profitability.

In this course, we address the strategic and operational principles that are at the heart of every approach to managing customer value. We will develop an understanding of concepts such as customer centricity, customer lifetime value, customer equity, or customer retention, and discuss how data-rich environments and data science impacts marketing practice. We also explore the role of customer relationship management (CRM) and discuss the success factors of implementing CRM systems in business practice.

We will introduce concepts and techniques to measure long-term customer profitability in different business settings and discuss the relationship between customer satisfaction and firm profitability. We then examine the three main components of managing a firm’s customer base, namely customer acquisition, development, and retention. Furthermore, we will explore the task of allocating and balancing (scarce) resources across these components. To provide an intuition of the course content and to practice these decision tasks we use a simulation game (http://whr.tn/CCsim) that will tie together all of the course content. Within this CC simulation environment, you learn to use data analytics to build a customer-centered strategy, develop a customer base, adapt to competitive threats, consider the role of branding, and explore the relationship between customer equity and market valuation.

The aim of this course is to develop an understanding of a customer-centric view of the firm and implications for CRM applications and marketing practice. More specifically, the course will provide students with insights on:

• Understanding the fundamental differences between product- and customer-centricity
• Develop an understanding of the drivers of customer satisfaction and its relationship with firm profitability
• Evaluate customer centric marketing metrics and key ingredients of customer lifetime value and customer equity
• Gain an understanding of which tools and methods can be utilized to calculate (forward-looking) customer lifetime value in various business settings
• Develop an understanding of how to invest in customer acquisition, retention and development to maximize value to the firm and to the customer
• Adopting the capability to apply tools that help marketers to best allocate firms’ efforts (and dollars) across the critical activities of customer acquisition, development, and retention
• Anticipate and avoid mistakes made by firms as they attempt to adopt a customer-centric business approach and to implement CRM systems

You must attend at least 80% of the classes. Presence is monitored by small in-class quizzes and is included in the grade accordingly.

The course integrates various teaching methods such as interactive lectures, class discussions, case analyses, group work, and a unique business simulation game. The simulation mimics the business situation of a struggling company aiming to implement a customer-centric business model. Participants playing the role of a CMO explore and measure the impact of customer acquisition, retention, and development initiatives over a nine-year period.

Substantial classroom discussion is encouraged and expected. Attendance and participation in class discussions are critical to the success of the course. Classes will begin on time so do not arrive late. Students are required to turn in assignments at their scheduled times.

Course materials:

• To get prepared for in-class case discussions a reading package will be provided.
• Other student packages including reading assignments, course slides, datasets, and case questions for the respective sessions will be provided via Canvas.

Group Components (55%)

Simulation Game: Performance and Presentation (35%)
Students will play a simulation game that mimics some of the challenges CMOs and other executives face in today's business environment. Each group will be graded according to its performance against its peers (25%). 

Final presentations describing the course of the simulation must be submitted and will be presented in front of the others (10%).

Tasks (20%)
Group tasks completed during or after the lectures. Task 1 (10%) is assessing the understanding of the theoretical base and models; Task 2 (10%) implies practical exercises on churn prevention and the creation of an executive summary of the results.

Individual Components (45%)

Blue Apron case study (10%)
The case study should be solved individually and discussed in class. Further details and materials will be provided.

Quizzes (30%)

In some sessions, students will be required to answer a set of questions, related to the covered material (5 quizzes, 6 points each).

Moreover, student participation will be monitored (5%).

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This course is designed for students of the WU Master's Program (MSc) in Marketing. Admittance to the program is a prerequisite for successful participation in the course.