Future Challenges For PR?
Arion Wong
I'm doing a research on Public Relations and I have come across the term
Consumer Relations Management (CRM). I'm wondering if this is the new method
for organizations to reach their customers, replacing PR?
Any comments or web-links on CRM is appreciated.
Furthermore, is there any on-line journals on marketing (specifically PR)
available on the net... which does NOT require payment (ie. free articles or
journals)? I've searched and most of them require payment in an expensive
currency (I'm from Malaysia).
Finally, I would also like to gauge the effectiveness of PR for organization
today in the face of advancing, non-personal technology. Comments and
opinions are extremely appreciated, thank you.
--
A.
Dan
> I'm doing a research on Public Relations and I have come across the term
> Consumer Relations Management (CRM). I'm wondering if this is the new method
> for organizations to reach their customers, replacing PR?
I've usually heard it referred to as Customer Relationship Management (the
nuances of English might not be as meaningful to you). It's not a
replacement for PR - that's aimed at the masses. CRM is (as that name
implies) tools and processes for managing the organization's relationship
with its customers, usually on a one-to-one basis.
This usually entails collecting information and storing it in a database,
then drawing upon that stored information in future interactions with the
customer.
If a customer repeatedly purchases a certain product, a CRM system might
provide them with a coupon for that product to enhance their loyalty and
drive sales. As an example of this, a grocery market where I used to live
carried a juice that I liked. I bought a can, and was given a coupon at the
register for 25 cents off a can. Obviously, I bought another can. This time,
the coupon was for 50 cents off two cans. When I bought two cans, I got a
coupon for 75 cents off three cans. Clever of them!
CRM can also be useful for marketing before the sale. If I own a small
bookstore and a customer frequently purchases new books by a certain author,
I might inform them when a new book was about to come out. If I worked for a
travel company (which I do;) and a customer frequently flew between
Singapore and Tokyo, it would be advantageous for both of us if I informed
them when a particularly good fare was offered on that route.
Exactly how the customer is informed varies. They might just be told of
things that are likely to interest them when they stop by a shop or call, or
shown a banner ad or ad copy text when they visit a company's website. Or
they might be notified more proactively, either through a personalized
direct-mail piece or (if they've given their permission) e-mail message.
It's important to note that this is NOT A NEW CONCEPT! Many adults grew up
in an era where there were still small, local stores with shopkeepers who
knew everyone in town by name. I fondly remember "Ted's Highway Market," out
on the main road a half-mile from my childhood home, as an excellent source
of toy cars, and I know the shopkeeper quickly figured out that I kept
coming back for the cars.
Earlier this summer, my wife and I visited a town where we'd lived some
years ago, before our daughter was born. Everyone still remembered us by
name - the folks at City Hall, the librarians, the bank tellers, the
shopkeepers, even the owner of the ice cream parlor.
Corporatization and globalization have introduced economies of scale with
which small shops find it hard to compete. Set up shop in a dozen countries
and on the Internet, and you can easily reach millions of customers, while a
small shop might only have a few hundred "regulars." Obviously, no human can
remember that many faces and names and their preferences, so computers have
to get involved. Conveniently, the computers are usually involved already,
handling the transactions, so it's just a matter of recording things and
then analzying that recorded information.
Two of the REALLY BIG names in CRM right now are Broadvision's product
One-to-One and Vignette's product suite. Broadvision has been a CRM and
e-commerce vendor as long as I've been aware of them; Vignette started out
as a content-management vendor spun off by C|Net, selling a product called
StoryServer to media companies, and has since added more integrated software
to their offerings, providing CRM and other capabilities.
Neither of these products is cheap - a complete configuration of either
would cost around US $1,000,000 _just for software_ - figure a few times
that for the hardware to run it on! But they're very very capable, and can
handle, or integrate with products that handle, everything from CRM to
marketing, web content management, integration of customer data from
multiple channels (web, phone, retail store), business analysis and
reporting, and customer service.
> Furthermore, is there any on-line journals on marketing (specifically PR)
> available on the net... which does NOT require payment (ie. free articles or
> journals)? I've searched and most of them require payment in an expensive
> currency (I'm from Malaysia).
There are tons of free e-mail newsletters and mailing lists around... I'm
trying to remember a few of the sites that offer them. www.egroups.com,
www.briefme.com ... there are many others.
> Finally, I would also like to gauge the effectiveness of PR for organization
> today in the face of advancing, non-personal technology. Comments and
> opinions are extremely appreciated, thank you.
I can't speak to that, but I would note that CRM is technology that is
advancing, while trying very hard to maintain a personal touch.
-Dan
--
Dan Birchall - Palolo Valley, Honolulu HI - http://dan.scream.org
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JohnR999
>Consumer Relations Management (CRM). I'm wondering if this is the new method
>for organizations to reach their customers, replacing PR?
Actually, the common use of the acronym CRM is for Customer Relationship
Management. These days, this refers to software database technology that
allows a company to track all sorts of data about its customers/prospects
and use statistical and other techniques to develop a 1:1 interactive
relationship with them. It is a spin-off from the more well-known Sales
Force Automation efforts of the '90's that have been more failure than
success. It remains to be seen whether CRM will deliver on its claims, as
well.
It can have relevance to a company's PR campaigns, but I do not believe even
it's biggest proponents claim that it will replace a strong PR effort.
JR
John Rodrigues
John...@aol.com