Examination

The examination form is a written exam of 60 minutes.

Please keep in mind that you need to register for the exam within the given registration period. It is NOT possible to register after the respective registration period!

For exchange students: 
Please note that it is required to take the course exam in Germany, at the University of Cologne. We do NOT offer fax exams! 

Bitte beachten Sie, dass Sie sich für die Prüfung innerhalb der vorgegebenen Anmeldefrist anmelden müssen. Eine Anmeldung nach der jeweiligen Anmeldefrist ist NICHT mehr möglich!

Für Austauschstudierende: 
Bitte beachten Sie, dass die Prüfung in Deutschland, an der Universität zu Köln, abgelegt werden muss. Wir bieten KEINE Fax-Prüfungen an! 

Course Description

The term "Customer Relationship Management" came into vogue in the mid 1990's. Since then, the concept of CRM has undergone a substantial evolution. Traditionally, the introduction of CRM was being viewed as a temporary activity. Some managers believed that CRM equals software or technology. However, nothing could be further from the truth than that. In this course, we want to look in this course at CRM from a strategic perspective. The core idea is to use a CRM approach to seed and harvest the benefits that arise from a relationship marketing approach.

The way CRM is conceptualized in this class is different from a simple technological definition. We entitle our concept, "Marketing-driven CRM". This is because our concept is based on sound marketing principles and comprises a holistic company-wide view of the domain. It recognizes the need to carefully balance organizational and customer interests. Shaping the customer-firm interaction via attraction and retention of the target customer groups is woven into the strategic and operational fabric of successful CRM adopters. Firms recognize that not all customers are created equal. Thus they need to develop capabilities that allows them attract and retain valuable customers. As a result, customer relationship management will be a complex set of activities that is likely to form the basis for a sustainable and hard to imitate competitive advantage. The discussion will apply both to B2B and to B2C settings.

Content and Objectives

The course will provide students with insight on:

• What are the theoretical and conceptual foundations of CRM?
• How can CRM enhance organizational performance?
• How does CRM force the interaction between corporate strategy, organizational structure, supply chain, and customer facing front end?
• How are CRM strategies implemented?
• What is the role of measuring and managing customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer profitability, and lifetime value?
• How does one use some of the basic CRM analytic tools?

• Process of strategic planning
• Segmentation, targeting, positioning
• Internationalization strategies
• Location models
• Performance metrics and retail controlling
• Retail branding
• Retail best-practices
• etc.

The pedagogy of this course will entail bith conceptual and applied elements, including case studies, lectures, and the participation of guest speakers with in-depth experience in the field.

Readings will be announced in class.

The students...

• learn about the importance of retailing
• assess current trends in retailing
• develop a strategic view on managing retail companies
• use theoretical approaches to analyse existing and new retail markets
• earn about metrics to measure retail performance
• know about best-practicesThe mission of the course is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of implementing a customer-relationship management strategy.

Content

The term "Customer Relationship Management" came into vogue in the mid 1990's. Since then, the concept of CRM has undergone a substantial evolution. Traditionally, the introduction of CRM was being viewed as a temporary activity. Some managers believed that CRM equals software or technology. However, nothing could be further from the truth than that. In this course, we want to look in this course at CRM from a strategic perspective. The core idea is to use a CRM approach to seed and harvest the benefits that arise from a relationship marketing approach. The way CRM is conceptualized in this class is different from a simple technological definition. We entitle our concept, "Marketing-driven CRM". This is because our concept is based on sound marketing principles and comprises a holistic company-wide view of the domain. It recognizes the need to carefully balance organizational and customer interests. Shaping the customer-firm interaction via attraction and retention of the target customer groups is woven into the strategic and operational fabric of successful CRM adopters. Firms recognize that not all customers are created equal. Thus they need to develop capabilities that allows them attract and retain valuable customers. As a result, customer relationship management will be a complex set of activities that is likely to form the basis for a sustainable and hard to imitate competitive advantage. The discussion will apply both to B2B and to B2C settings.

Learning Objectives
Customer Relationship Management:
The course will provide students with insight on:

What are the theoretical and conceptual foundations of CRM?
How can CRM enhance organizational performance?
How does CRM force the interaction between corporate strategy, organizational structure, supply chain, and customer facing front end?
How are CRM strategies implemented?
What is the role of measuring and managing customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer profitability, and lifetime value?
How does one use some of the basic CRM analytic tools?

Turnus WS

Credit Points 6 ECTS

Modules Lecture Excercise

Examination Written exam

Language English

Initial Requirements Recommended: basic knowledge in multivariate analysis and marketing

Responsible Department Department of Retailing and Customer Management

Contact Person Andrea Humpe, Office of Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz. For more information click KLIPS