Creating, managing and monitoring customer value in the on- and offline world

Marketers have in general difficulty justifying marketing expenditures. This has negative consequences for the position of the marketing department within the firm and for firm performance. In this dissertation three studies are presented that offer insights in how marketing can be made more accountable. The first study focuses on data which has been collected through surveys to make better predictions about future customer behavior. In a large scale study, under 93 firms in 18 industries, customer satisfaction and the popular ‘Net Promoter Score’ where found to be the best predictors of retention. The second study investigates what the impact of different online advertising forms is on website traffic and revenue for online retailers. The most important finding is that advertising forms where the first step is conducted by the customer, for example with search engine advertising, are much more effective than so called push marketing, for example email campaigns. Also advertising forms where the message is integrated in the medium’s content, for example with price comparison sites, product placements and editorials, are more effective than separate commercial messages, for example traditional banners and commercials. The final study focuses on the online search for information and conducting online purchases through different electronic devices. When online retailers can better identify which electronic devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop) belong to which customer and the order in which these devices are used, then customers can be much better targeted and crucial moments at which the purchase rate (more than) doubles can be identified.