Home » Marketing » Strategy

Recent Thinking

Featured Marketing, Strategy Article, customer queries
Premium Content
Anticipating customer queries in call centers

November 2007

An effort to determine the value of specific kinds of customer inquiries shows how companies should decide which channels are best for dealing with each of them.

Featured Marketing, Strategy Article, aging baby boomers
Premium Content
Serving aging baby boomers

November 2007

Baby boomers have rewritten the rules at every stage of their lives. They will rewrite the rules of retirement as well.

Featured Marketing, Strategy Article, evolving CMO
Premium Content
The evolving role of the CMO

August 2007

Many chief marketers still have narrowly defined roles that emphasize advertising, brand management, and market research. They will have to spread their wings.

The Archive

2007
Confronting proliferation ... in retail: An interview with Wal-Mart’s John Fleming Premium Content

July 2007

The giant retailer’s chief merchandising officer explains why and how it is trying to reach a wider range of consumers than it has in the past.

Selling to 'mom-and-pop' stores in emerging markets

March 2007

Traditional shops and the companies that serve them are finding life harder and harder. For the suppliers, segmented execution is the answer.

2006
A call center's last line of defense Premium Content

November 2006

All save desks are not created equal: the best help companies to cut their churn rates, become more profitable, and even develop new products.

A grassroots approach to emerging-market consumers

November 2006

By tapping into local networks, companies can serve low-income markets profitably, delivering significant value to shareholders while creating the essential market infrastructure for economic development in the neediest communities.

Escaping the middle-market trap: An interview with the CEO of Electrolux Premium Content

November 2006

Hans Stråberg discusses the challenges of serving both the high and low ends of the market successfully.

Connecting CRM systems for better customer service Premium Content

August 2006

Few companies gracefully pass sales leads and service information across the barriers of departments and business units. But those that do enjoy substantial rewards.

Managing your business as if customer segments matter Premium Content

August 2006

As customers' needs fragment, marketers must develop common, actionable segmentations and integrate segment-level goals into planning and performance-management processes.

Lessons from a global retailer: An interview with the president of Carrefour China Premium Content

June 2006

Jean-Luc Chéreau discusses the French company's experiences as its hypermarkets spread out from China’s biggest cities to the vast hinterland.

Profiting from Proliferation

June 2006

An explosion of new customer segments, sales and service channels, media, and brands is challenging marketers to reinvent themselves so they can simultaneously prioritize opportunities in a more sophisticated way and increase the consistency and coordination of their marketing execution.

Shaping China's home-improvement market: An interview with B&Q's CEO for Asia Premium Content

June 2006

Steve Gilman says that because Chinese consumers are changing so quickly, retailers must change quickly to keep up with them.

The new Chinese consumer

June 2006

The emergence of an enormous middle class signals a seismic shift in the global market.

Using call centers to boost revenue Premium Content

May 2006

Many companies can turn their inbound call centers into powerful engines for growth.

Using IT to boost call-center performance

March 2006

Call centers, making targeted improvements involving more cost-effective technologies, are finally saving money and improving revenues with IT.

2005
Winning the Indian consumer Premium Content

September 2005

Multinationals that successfully adapt their products to India's largely untapped market will have the advantage.

Boosting returns on marketing investment

May 2005

Rules of thumb from the 1960s and '70s are losing their effectiveness. A more rigorous approach is required—one that treats marketing expenditures as investments.

Getting more from call centers Premium Content

April 2005

Used properly, they can be strategic assets.

Profiting from spare parts Premium Content

February 2005

Some aftermarket parts businesses lack the resources they need to raise their profitability and fend off low-priced competitors. Others have these resources without knowing it.

Dwindling readership: Are tabloids the answer?

January 2005

They can be, but only if newspapers first work out—and mitigate—the risks.

2004
A new model for marketing

November 2004

The proliferation of brands and channels is forcing companies to restructure their marketing efforts significantly.

Making brand portfolios work Premium Content

November 2004

Brands are proliferating rapidly. Companies must now bring them under control.

Better rewards for hotel loyalty Premium Content

September 2004

How to stop hotel customers from sleeping around.

Bringing science to sales Premium Content

August 2004

By integrating systems in order to generate transaction-level costs and revenues, companies can determine where to focus their sales efforts.

Organizing for CRM Premium Content

August 2004

Companies should treat a customer-relationship-management solution as a product or service and its users as internal customers—by making it valuable, pricing appropriately, advertising, and providing after-sales support.

Playing to win in the business of sports

July 2004

The pressure is on. Making money—not just popularity—is the name of the game.

When your competitor delivers more for less Premium Content

February 2004

Value players will probably challenge your company. How will you respond?

2003
Better branding Premium Content

November 2003

Marketers rely too much on intuition. The key to building brands more scientifically is to combine a forward-looking market segmentation with a better understanding of customers and a brand’s identity.

Going the distance with telecom customers

November 2003

Carriers can increase their profits—by getting more value from existing customers and being more selective about new ones.

Alliances in consumer goods

August 2003

Consumer-packaged-goods companies are turning to a range of alliance opportunities to achieve growth.

Solving the solutions problem

August 2003

Companies can earn higher margins or increased revenues by selling integrated offerings—if they don’t merely bundle their products.

Gambling on customers

May 2003

Gary Loveman, the man who brought the customer service revolution to gaming, explains how he helped double Harrah’s revenues and earnings.

Spotlight on the sales force Premium Content

February 2003

A survey of consumer goods companies shows that top performers raised their prices and their market shares at the same time.

2002
Customer retention is not enough

May 2002

Defecting customers are far less of a problem than customers who change their buying patterns. New ways of understanding these changes can unlock the power of loyalty.

2000
The price of loyalty Premium Content

November 2000

Do you know if your loyalty program is working?

Stop wasting promotional money Premium Content

May 2000

Manufacturers pay little attention to trade spending—the payments they make to retailers to encourage promotion—but proper management of these expenditures can increase a company’s return on sales by two percentage points.

1999
Marketing in 3-D Premium Content

November 1999

Functional, process, and relationship benefits are the hat trick of contemporary marketing. To score, follow three rules.

A segmentation you can act on Premium Content

August 1999

Value-based segments usually don’t fit neatly into demographic ones. Some solutions step around the problem; others meet it head on.

1998
A new way to reach small businesses Premium Content

August 1998

Continuous relationship marketing (CRM) is widely used in business-to-consumer marketing, but more large companies should apply the technique to small businesses, which often represent their most profitable customers.

Marketing to the Hispanic consumer Premium Content

August 1998

Step one: find your language. Then recognize the "acculturated" segment. The best marketers create a bond through their products.

1997
European category management: Look before you leap Premium Content

February 1997

In public, European consumer goods manufacturers have embraced joint category management, the theory that they can benefit consumers and themselves by cooperating with retailers to manage product categories as strategic business units. But in private, many are skeptical.

1996
Nestlé: The visions of local managers Premium Content

May 1996

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, then (1996) Nestlé’s CEO-elect, talks about his long-term views on globalization. And chocolate.

1995
Partners Premium Content

November 1995

Teaming up with suppliers was just a first step. Customers and channels can be partners too, even competitors. Focus on creating revenue. Marketing’s fifth “P” is a direct link to strategy.

Can marketing regain the personal touch? Premium Content

August 1995

“Continuous relationships” with customers can, in fact, be achieved. Classical marketing skills, not expensive IT and neural networks, are what’s needed. Pilots, skunkworks, and pragmatism. Avoiding electronic green stamps.

Increasing the value of product development Premium Content

May 1995

Companies can improve the way they develop and commercialize new products and processes with the help of a new diagnostic tool that enables senior management to link value drivers with the creation of shareholder value.

1994
Does advertising work? Premium Content

August 1994

Hands-on advice for getting an essential, value-added conversation back on track.

1993
Making profits after the sale Premium Content

November 1993

In their search for new sources of growth, industrial firms often overlook attractive opportunities very near to home.

Member Log in

forgot password?

visit The McKinsey Quarterly on Facebook