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Database marketers often select households for individual marketing contacts using information on past purchase behavior. One of the most common methods, known as RFM variables approach, ranks households according to three criteria: the recency of the latest purchase event, the long-run frequency of purchases, and the cumulative dollar expenditure. We argue that RFM variables approach is an indirect measure of the latent purchase propensity of the customer. In addition, the use of RFM information in targeting households creates major statistical problems (selection bias and RFM endogeneity) that complicate the calibration of forecasting models. Using a latent trait approach to capture a household's propensity to purchase a product, we construct a methodology that not only measures directly the latent propensity value of the customer, but also avoids the statistical limitations of the RFM variables approach. The result is a general household response forecasting and scoring approach that can be used on any database of customer transactions. We apply our methodology to a database from a charitable organization and show that the forecasting accuracy of the new methodology improves upon the traditional RFM variables approach.

Customer segmentation is an important research area that helps organizations to improve their services according to customer needs. With the increased information that shows customer attitudes, it is much easier and also more necessary than before to analyze customer responses on different campaigns. Recency, frequency, and monetary (RFM) analysis allows us to segment customers according to their common features. In this chapter, customer segmentation and RFM analysis are explained first, then a real case application of RFM analysis on customer segmentation for a Fuel company is presented. At the end of the application part, possible strategies for the company are generated.

The term ‘strategy’ is one of the most frequently used terms in business, and its application in marketing is particularly common. Company strategy, market strategy, marketing strategy, sales strategy, promotion strategy, distribution strategy, low pricing strategy – it would take a long time to list all of them. Although this term is so commonly in use, its definition is not as straightforward and it can be interpreted in different ways. In comparison with tactical decisions, strategy is much more significant for an organisation as it brings long-lasting consequences. It is implemented by higher level managers on a regular basis, and it is based on external, often subjective information, so decisions – especially at the time they are made – are difficult to evaluate.

Taking into consideration the fact that strategy refers to a long-term rather than a short-term period, strategic decisions serve as the basis for undertaking operational activities. However, marketing refers to the market and the competition. It is possible to claim that marketing strategy is trying to find an answer to the question to which path an organisation should follow in order to achieve its goals and objectives. If, for example, a company has a goal to generate a profit of PLN 1 million by selling 100,000 pieces of a product, the market strategy should answer at least the following two questions:

1. Who will be our target group, for example, who will purchase the 100,000 pieces of the product?

2. Why is it us from whom a potential buyer should purchase the product?

Who will be our target group, for example, who will purchase the 100,000 pieces of the product?

Why is it us from whom a potential buyer should purchase the product?

The target market will be defined if a reply to the first question is provided. The second question identifies the foundations of competitive advantage. These two issues, that is, target market and competitive advantage are the strategic marketing issues. You cannot change your target group unexpectedly while competitive advantage is the basis for changing decisions regarding prices, promotions and sales.

This chapter describes the measures of marketing activities which refer to strategic aspects and testify a company’s market position – the measures of the performance of target groups and competitive advantage. Readers’ attention should be also focused on the indices that are less popular in Poland and, therefore, may be underestimated. It seems that some of them, for example, the index of marketing resources allocation and the marketing risk index, provide a lot of valuable information and, at the same time, make it possible to show the value of marketing investments. Their wider use in the near future is only a matter of time.