http://deltalytics.org/blog                                                                                            Illuminating and leveraging customer analytics to enhance small business performance. Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:27:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I was absolutely floored by the promotion AMAZON.COM sent me earlier this week...you see, I purchased a HD-DVD player from AMAZON about a year ago.  Toshiba's HD-DVD format recently lost the war to Blu-Ray and is now obsolete.  Soon after NETFLIX and BLOCKBUSTER announced they would no longer offer HD-DVD titles I listed ... http://deltalytics.org/blog/2008/04/11/amazon-king-of-internet-retailing-shines-again/ I came across an interesting article titled "Solving the mystery of customer lifetime value," by Brian Plowman of Develin Partners (based in the UK).  He makes a convincing argument that while most companies focus on revenue, customer count and gross margin to assess profitability, that a more rigorous ABC (Activity ... http://deltalytics.org/blog/2008/04/10/the-hook-curve-a-better-way-to-gauge-profitability/ In the June issue of Catalog Success magazine, catalog veteran and consultant John Lenser -- in "RFM Turned Upside Down - How online ordering is changing the age-old circ plan formula" -- made one of the most astonishing claims I've come across in a long time.  Consider the following:  What ... http://deltalytics.org/blog/2007/08/22/astonishing-mailings-can-dramatically-depress-reorder-rate/ The short-term results -- in terms of sales and profit -- of a particular advertisement or promotion can be completely misleading.  A promotion that seems to perform well early on might spell future disaster for the business.  Similarly, promotions that "lose money" might be goldmines in disguise.  It all boils ... http://deltalytics.org/blog/2007/08/06/why-profitable-advertisements-arent-necessarily-desirable/ Most analysts would agree that customer lifetime value (LTV) is the single metric against which all strategic business decisions should be evaluated.  In other words, a favorable strategic decision will tend to increase LTV.  The better the decision, the greater the impact.  Although non-trivial, determining the current value of a ... http://deltalytics.org/blog/2007/08/01/ltv-elusive-as-it-is-valuable/