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MIP
22,2 The design, implementation
and monitoring of a CRM
160
programme: a case study
Adam Lindgreen
Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Keywords Customer relations, Design, Newspaper publishers, Scandinavia
Abstract Few published empirical studies have examined the design, implementation, and
monitoring of customer relationship management (CRM) programmes at a practical level. The
article develops a single embedded case study on Dagbladet Børsen (http://www.borsen.dk), the
largest publisher of business-related materials in Scandinavia. The article first introduces the
reader to the philosophy behind CRM. Following that, it considers key areas of a four-year long
CRM programme and offer insights into the procedure that has been developed by SJP (http://
www.sjp.dk), the consulting firm that was brought in to assist. The procedure is organized around
eight areas: commitment of senior management, situation report, analysis, strategy formulation,
implementation, management development, employee involvement, and evaluation of
loyalty-building processes. Over the four-year long CRM programme, Dagbladet Børsen
increased its newspaper circulation by 40 per cent and advertising revenue by 50 per cent, while
total revenue more than doubled.

Marketing Intelligence & Planning
Vol. 22 No. 2, 2004
pp. 160-186
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-4503
DOI 10.1108/02634500410525841
Introduction
The way in which marketing is being practised is changing, and this, in turn, is
due to dramatic changes in marketing’s context such as physical distance, time,
economy, deregulation, globalization, customer expectations, and new
information technology (Brookes et al., 2002; Doyle, 2000; Hunt, 2000).
Several researchers have sought to understand the nature of these changes in
marketing’s context and practice. One finding has been that organizations are
increasingly focusing on attracting, developing, and retaining businesses
(Jackson, 1985; Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Reichheld, 1996). This is called
relationship marketing (RM) and is in contrast to 4Ps marketing: product, price,
place, and promotion that emphasize attracting businesses, but less so
retaining businesses (Buttle, 1996; Gummesson, 1999). 4Ps marketing is also
known as traditional marketing or transaction marketing (TM). This is shown
in Figure 1.
Another finding has been that managers are placing a greater emphasis on
managing their marketing relationships, networks, and interactions, both
internally with employees and externally with suppliers (and their suppliers),
customers (and their customers), and other important markets (Christopher
et al., 1991; Gummesson, 1999; Hunt, 2000). Figure 2 shows some of the key
The author was a visiting professor with Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
while parts of this paper were written.
markets. Marketing must recognize the diversity of these markets, and develop CRM
effective market plans that provide value for each of these markets programme: a
(Christopher et al., 1991). Customer relationship management (CRM) can case study
conveniently be viewed as that part of RM that is concerned with managing
customer relationships.
Yet a third finding has been that in many organizations there is a pluralistic 161
approach to marketing and how it is being practised – with RM being carried
out in conjunction with TM (Brodie et al., 1997; Lindgreen et al., 2000). For
example, Brodie et al. (1997) investigated current marketing practice using a
survey of 134 firms and four case studies. Their results did not find support for
a complete paradigm shift in marketing to RM. Rather, their findings supported
the notion that TM is still relevant, and that many businesses practise TM
concurrently with various types of RM. This is termed “pluralistic approach to
marketing”.

Figure 1.
Two different
approaches to marketing:
4Ps TM and RM

Figure 2.
The six markets model
MIP In brief, CRM has been advocated as a strategy that is an appropriate response
22,2 to these changes in marketing’s context. However, few published empirical
studies have examined the design, implementation, and monitoring of CRM
programmes at a practical level.

162 Organization of the paper

The structure of the paper is as follows. We first outline the methodology that
was a single embedded case study on Dagbladet Børsen (DB). Following that
we examine the challenges that the company was facing and the CRM
programme that they designed and implemented in response to these
challenges. We also look at how it has been possible to monitor the CRM
programme. Finally, we summarize the contributions to academic theory and
managerial practice, as well as future challenges to the CRM programme.

Methodology
The role of the research was to understand how CRM has been implemented in
real-life settings. This indicated the need for an in-depth examination of CRM
practices within a single business sector where CRM approaches are a notable
part of developing a competitive advantage (Price and Arnould, 1998).
Single-business studies are also useful for identifying universal organizational
patterns, and processes (Baum et al., 2001). We propose that the newspaper
sector offers an excellent context for examining how, if at all, CRM
programmes have been designed and implemented (Feather, 2000). For
example, many publishers keep up-to-date information on their customers as a
part of subscription databases and use this information to personalize their
market offerings and/or relationships.
We conducted a single embedded case study on Dagbladet Børsen, a firm that
had recently “finished” a four-year long CRM project in which it employed the
consulting firm Stig Jørgensen and Partners (SJP). The case study involved
in-depth, three-hour interviews with the company’s sales and marketing
director, subscription manager, marketing co-coordinator and database
manager, and the consulting firm’s managing partner responsible for the
CRM programme project. The main objective of the interviews was to gain a
comprehension of how Dagbladet Børsen has sought to manage its customer
relationships, and to extract those factors that can explain how the CRM
marketing strategy has been designed and, later, implemented and monitored.
Questions were standardized around topics relating to the CRM model that was
followed during the project (Figure 3). Questions were kept deliberately broad to
allow the interviewees as much freedom in their answers as possible. After this, a
series of specific questions were asked to make sure that all areas of the CRM
project had been covered. The interview guide can be found in Appendix 1.
The interviews were taped and later transcribed for a thorough analysis,
while the interview data were cross validated with secondary sources of
 CRM
programme: a
case study

163

Figure 3.
CRM implementation
model

information such as analysis reports from the four-year project. Overall, the
volume of data was condensed through coding and memoing, as well as in the
activities of finding themes, clusters, and patterns. The coding consisted of
summarizing the data by pulling together themes and identifying patterns
based on a coding scheme developed after the first researcher had coded the
data (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Following this, an initial report was written
and sent to the interview respondents for review and comments. This process,
and the use of multiple sources of evidence, helped improve the validity of the
research (Yin, 1994).

Dagbladet Børsen
The objective of the Børsen Group is to cover the need of decision makers in
both private and public sectors in Denmark for professional information on
Danish trade and industry. This is achieved through the newspaper Dagbladet
Børsen, as well as magazines, books, handbooks, and newsletters. Moreover,
the group arranges a wide range of conferences, seminars, and course activities
that focus on world financial, economic, and political developments, as well as
club activities for top management and government officials who meet on a
regular basis with leading guest speakers from around the world. Many of the
group’s products are available through media such as the fax, the mobile
telephone and pdf (Børsen Mobil), and, since January 1996, the Internet (Børsen
Online and personalized news e-mails). Further, the group is responsible for
parts of the news service at the independent TV2.
Dagbladet Børsen is the leading business daily in Denmark with a
circulation of approximately 60,000 copies. This is an increase of almost 50 per
cent over the past six years. Some 480,000 people read it at least once a week;
some 239,000 people read it daily. Around 50 per cent of the readers are
MIP younger than 50 years old, and more than 3,000 readers are students. Although
22,2 the newspaper is politically independent, it favours the free market economy
and strongly supports private business and worldwide trade. Over the past
years, it has strengthened its profile through a series of editorial campaigns in
the area of enterprises and in the sphere of economics and politics. Regular
editorial activities include IT, media market, transportation, finance, property,
164 job market, and private investment, while recent activities include value-based
management and the Danish food sector. The newspaper has no immediate
competitors because three other titles are omnibus newspapers and, therefore,
no real competitors, and because another is a smaller newspaper distributed
free of charge to some 100,000 typically small-sized companies.

Stig Jørgensen and Partners

The publisher brought in SJP to assist the CRM project. This firm offers
consultancy services to large and medium-sized companies and organizations,
and has extensive experience from many projects around all of Europe. Typical
CRM projects involve a long-term development process that extends over two
to three years and include all areas of consultancy, situational report, design of
strategy, implementation of strategy, education and training of employees, and
evaluation of the CRM project. SJP’s view of CRM is that it is:
a management philosophy that includes a client’s total organization and which must be a main
driver for the client’s determination of strategies and sub-strategies; optimization of
loyalty-driving processes; adjustment of organizational matters; development of employee
competencies; and incentive structure. In all CRM projects the overall goal should be to improve
the economic performance and results of the client by capitalizing on his customer capital.

The case: from challenges to solutions

The model that was followed in the implementation of the CRM programme is
shown in Figure 3.
As can be seen, the model combines elements of “hard” CRM skills (situation
report, analysis, strategy formulation, and implementation) and “soft” CRM
skills (commitment of senior management, management development,
employee involvement, and evaluation of loyalty-building processes).
Discussion of the CRM programme will be structured around these eight areas.

Commitment of senior management

The essential anchoring and ownership in senior management is ensured in this
phase. A key issue here is for senior management to define a CRM vision that will
serve as a guideline and formulation of goals for the further process. A number of
seminars and workshops with the management group are used in this phase.
Dagbladet Børsen had some 37,000 paid subscribers in 1997, of which
approximately 6,000 were new subscribers and 3,000 were relatively new
subscribers. The publisher thus distinguishes among three categories of
subscribers (Table I). A subscription does not necessarily cover a whole year, but
can be for 1, 3, 6, or 12 months, and this makes it difficult to translate the CRM
information in Table I into figures for customer retention, as a customer who only programme: a
wants to pay for three months at a time can still be a loyal customer. In 1997, some case study
35-40 per cent of the subscribers had paid for one full year; some 50 per cent had
paid for three months; and the rest had paid for up to six months only.
It is, therefore, useful to organize the information about the customers in a
different way. This has been done in Table II and it is possible to tell what was
165
the main problem for Dagbladet Børsen: in 1997, it was losing up to 40 per cent
of new subscribers and up to 70 per cent of relatively new customers:
Being a newspaper publisher, the starting point for us has naturally been [. . .] the number of
new subscribers, and the number of lost subscribers. We used to have a high rate of [. . .]
subscriber rotation: many people signed up, and many people left. We, therefore, generally
spent a lot of resources on attracting customers, but less so on retaining customers (Sales and
marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).
Most of the marketing activities are directed toward these customers, and
although some of these customers do take up a subscription with the
newspaper at a later stage these marketing activities are both costly and
inefficient.

Definition: subscribers in Number of

Category of subscribers this category have paid . . . subscribers

New subscribers For up to one subscriptiona 6,000

Relatively new subscribers For two subscriptions 3,000
Regular subscribers For at least three subscriptions 28,000
Total number of subscribers 37,000
a
Note: A subscription is defined here as a paid delivery of the newspaper; the time over which Table I.
the subscription runs can be anything between four weeks and a year Subscribers to
Source: Dagbladet Børsen Dagbladet Børsen, 1997

Renewed subscriptions Number of “Rotation” ratea

Category of subscribers (per cent) subscribers (per cent)

New subscribers 30-40 7,000-10,000 280b

Relatively new subscribers 60-70 10,000-12,000 180b
Regular subscribers 4-5 2,500-3,200 10b
New and relatively new subscribers 20,000b 54b,c
Total amount 17,000b 190b,d
Notes: aThe rotation rate is defined here as the number of subscribers who have ceased their
subscription to DB as a percentage of the average total number of subscribers in this category; Table II.
b
these numbers are only approximate numbers; cthis number refers to the 9,000 customer base Yearly churn rates of
(= 6,000 + 3,000 customers); dthis number refers to the total 37,000 customer base customer categories,
Source: Dagbladet Børsen 1997
MIP Having realized that it needed to improve the customer loyalty, Dagbladet
22,2 Børsen set aside the resources necessary to design and implement the business
processes that would provide for loyalty. The publisher also reasoned that its
organizational structure historically had been structured for the daily
operations, but it was not appropriate for implementing changes in the
business processes, as these were likely to be more fundamental. Moreover, the
166 regular organizational structure is more concerned with today’s and
tomorrow’s tasks than with next year’s tasks:
When it comes to fundamental and radical changes [in an organization’s] systems and
structures the [traditional hierarchical] organization is often not suitable. The project
organization – with its projects and project committees – must, therefore, be established as a
development organization parallel to, but independent of the regular organization (SJP).
A separate project organization (Newspaper sales project forum) was set up,
and consisted of six key managers and employees from Dagbladet Børsen
working together with the consulting firm; in addition, all other staff from the
publisher were invited to present their ideas in the forum’s meetings. The
organization would meet once a month or more, if necessary, to discuss the
CRM development project: to start and cancel sub-projects; to prioritize and
coordinate sub-projects; and to identify and secure project leaders, as well as
financial resources. (At a later stage, this project organization was merged with
the regular organizational structure due to lack of necessary resources.)
What we decided to do in relation to the first loyalty analysis was to implement a number of
development projects. Stig Jørgensen & Partners really are very ambitious: in order to have
all the employees embracing the project, a project organization must be created next to the
regular organization (Sales and marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).
Sub-projects included the product (the newspaper and augmentations of the
product) and communications in relation to subscription renewals. Any given
sub-project is evaluated on what the problem is, and what the suggested
solution is; what the budget is for financial expenses, as well as for person
hours; how the project is implemented; what the schedule for implementation
is; and which stakeholders must be communicated with.

Situation report
Based on the CRM vision, desk research is performed in this phase. Easy-to-use
electronic tools are used, as this ensures high productivity. The goal is to
describe the elements in the client company’s situation and performance, which
are of significant importance in relation to the CRM strategy. That is, the
here-and-now situation must be known to describe the gap between the CRM
vision and the present situation.

Analysis
The mapping of customer loyalty toward the client company, which is carried
out in this phase, is often done on an individual customer level. The central
issues are how loyal are the customers, which factors are driving loyalty, and CRM
which factors are destroying it? An analysis tool has been developed to help programme: a
uncover which cluster of loyalty initiatives will be most effective in improving case study
customer loyalty, and results in a loyalty matrix that distinguishes between
ambassadors, loyal customers, customers at risk, customers on the look-out,
and lost customers (Figure 4). The main purpose in using a loyalty analysis is
167
to provide information about which efforts can move a client company from its
present situation to realizing its CRM vision.
In this case, the questionnaire used for the customer analysis dealt with
questions related to the individual reader (Appendix 2), including a number of
statements that the reader would have to reflect over and, subsequently,
answer. (Appendix 3 contains information only on subscriber categories A and
B.) The questions/statements were developed in focus groups comprising staff
from the publisher and the consulting firm as well as customers:
We set up a number of focus groups in order to identify some of those issues it would be
relevant to ask about: “are you satisfied with the product”, etc. (Sales and marketing director,
Dagbladet Børsen).
The focus groups met in three major cities (Copenhagen, Århus, and Esbjerg)
and included customers who differed from each other on a number of aspects,
as well as people from Dagbladet Børsen and SJP. If most customers agreed on
a particular topic then this topic was omitted from the questionnaire. The
questionnaires in 1997 and 1999 were administered by SJP, and in 2001 were
run by a different consulting firm. In order to build the loyalty matrix, the
analysis tool requires a certain number of returned questionnaires (this number
is dependent on how many issues are dealt with). For example, in 1997, the
questionnaire was mailed to 1,303 subscribers (with their personal name on the

Figure 4.
The loyalty matrix
MIP envelope). These 1,303 people were among 1,859 people who during a campaign
22,2 in September 1997 had taken up a subscription offer. (“A month’s subscription
to Dagbladet Børsen for DKK 100.”) Over the months of September and October
1997, the publisher received 497 responses (a return rate of 38 per cent). Further
details of the 1997 questionnaire have been included in Table III, including
information on the different subscriber categories A, B, and C, and reveal that
168 the response rates were high. Except for minor details, the questionnaire was
the same for each of the subscriber categories, and would provide key
information on the behaviour of different categories.
The analysis of the questionnaire survey resulted in the loyalty matrix
shown in Figure 5.
It was found that 56 per cent of the subscribers were loyal (or even
ambassadors)[1] while 5 per cent were either on the lookout for other
newspapers or lost subscribers[2]. The remaining 40 per cent of subscribers
were at risk, as they were not totally satisfied with, and/or attracted to, the
publication[3]. The figure also contains information on the three different

Number of Number of Response rate

Category of subscriber recipients respondents (per cent)

The person will continue with his subscription

(Group A, “continuers”) 450 183 41
The person will not continue with his subscription
Table III. (Group B, “stoppers”) 329 126 38
Response rates for The person is yet to make up his mind (Group C,
different subscriber “don’t-knows”) 524 188 36
categories, 1997 Source: Dagbladet Børsen

Figure 5.
The loyalty matrix for
DB, 1997
groups A, B, and C; the analysis of the questionnaire would be dealt with at the CRM
level of these three groups. programme: a
The main conclusion of the questionnaire in 1997 was that the marketing case study
activities were directed toward the wrong subscribers. That is, the majority of
those subscribers who are attracted to a special subscription offer do not want
to continue subscribing when the full price has to be paid. This means that too 169
many resources are used on short-time improvements in sales, where the
proper thing would have been to spend the resources on long-time
improvements in sales by attracting only those people who want to continue
after a special offer campaign. That is, although the publisher would attract
fewer people, the “quality” of these people would be higher and could better be
retained:
From ’98-’99, we have increasingly changed to long-term subscriber periods – eight months
– because we believe that it takes some time for a person to get to know the product and feel
that it is impossible to live without it. We can now see that the likelihood that such people
renew their subscription is higher than for people who have signed up for only three months.
However, we have less people signing up for eight months [than for three months] [. . .] We get
rid of many of those people who say, “OK, let me try for DKK100”, but who are not
necessarily committed (Sales and marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).
It was possible to draw a number of sub-conclusions. The majority of readers
were directors and managers, in that order. These readers are professional
users of the newspaper’s information and find it key that it is delivered early in
the morning (in the case when they receive the newspaper at their private
addresses). Fewer than 25 per cent of the readers find it a problem that there is
no Saturday edition. On average, readers are satisfied with how the editorial
board has prioritised the different topics but do think that the newspaper
should focus less on transportation/infrastructure and property:
In ’96, a new editor-in-chief took over [. . .] He started a general rehabilitation process with
regard to the product. Børsen used to be somewhat of a newspaper without any clear
objectives or editorial profiles [. . .] We wrote about the corporate life, but mostly in the way
that the journalists saw fit (Sales and marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).
In order to attract those customers who are not willing to pay the full price for a
supplementary newspaper of this kind it would be necessary to do one of two
things.
(1) Change the newspaper so that it is no longer just a supplementary
newspaper, but rather a stand alone newspaper with information on
business, as well as domestic and foreign affairs.
(2) Reduce the yearly subscription price of some 2,000DKK, as this would
make it economically a more attractive proposition because most people
subscribe to at least one major newspaper at a price of some 2,500DKK.
Without such a reduction in subscription price many people have
difficulties in justifying their subscription.
MIP Many of the people who have responded to a special offer are far from
22,2 Dagbladet Børsen’s traditional subscribers and will, therefore, not continue
after the special offer has finished. Because of that it was recommended to
focus more on the traditional reader: professional users. It is interesting to note
that, in 1997, readers within sales and marketing had not been approached so
far. The majority of those people who continue with their subscription do so
170 when they find the product interesting (70 per cent) and/or when they receive a
financial incentive for doing so (50 per cent).
In order to deal with the problems identified by the customers, all the
employees with the publisher participated in a seminar on the philosophy
behind customer loyalty. The employees would then have the necessary
background information for understanding the problems that the customers
were facing and for coming up with solutions to these problems. All problems
were ranked, and groups were set-up consisting of the employees (including
senior management). On a given Saturday, each group then received
“ownership” of a number of problems and would, over this day from 9.30
a.m. to 5.00 a.m., try to identify possible solutions. It should be noted that the
employees had also fill out the same questionnaire that the customers had sent
back, and all groups would have both sets of answers.
The fact that customers and employees do not always rank different problems
in the same way shows the importance of carrying out customer surveys.
Customers ranked “Dagbladet Børsen offers new customers a discount, but not
me although I am a loyal customer” 12th, and employees ranked it ninth.
Customers ranked “Dagbladet Børsen makes it possible for customers to
constantly seek discounts” 76th, while employees ranked it seventh.
The main reason why most of the continuers decided on a subscription offer
was the editorial line. Almost 70 per cent of continuers argue that the reason
why they still want to subscribe is because, among other things, the newspaper
is an important supplement to their primary newspaper in terms of trade,
industry, and finance. In addition, more than 50 per cent of continuers stated
that the subscription offer was the reason why they continued. This is,
therefore, one of the main reasons why so many (60-70 per cent) stop their
subscription when they have to pay full price. In other words, in the 1997
campaign, only some 180-240 people continued their subscription – this is
equal to a hit rate of some 0.45-0.60 per cent. The problem is not that 1,859
people accept the offer, as this is a high number, but rather that so few of these
people continue after the trial period. The sales and marketing activities thus
attract the wrong people. Over the past year or so, Dagbladet Børsen have
successfully discussed such different areas as shareholder value and the
Danish food and beverage sector:
You can settle with Erhvervs-bladet. You can settle with the business sections of Berlingske
or Jyllands-Posten, but with the editorial changes that we have initiated we have become
more important because there are things where it is Børsen that set the agenda. For example,
 shareholder value [. . .] That is, many editorial concepts which make us stronger, in terms of CRM
image, market, and position. (Sales and marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).
programme: a
case study
Strategy formulation
A CRM strategy development programme is performed on the basis of the
previous three phases. This CRM strategy has two levels: 171
(1) determination of quantitative CRM goals; and
(2) determination of CRM initiatives.
The CRM goals relate to the following areas:
.
positive development in lifetime value of the total customer capital;
.
positive developments in revenue, profit, and loyalty on an aggregated
level and, often, on individual customer level;
.
priority of customer segments in relation to both retention and new sales;
and
.
creation of a system for ongoing customer loyalty measurements, a
so-called customer feedback system.
The CRM initiatives, among others, cover the following areas:
.
priority of customer-related development projects;
. priority of internal development projects;
.
adjustment of various sub-strategies such as sales, marketing, and IT;
.
adjustment of competencies development plan; and
.
adjustment of salary and bonus programmes.
Although the above goals and initiatives vary from company to company they
seem to be of general importance across different companies and industries.
Figure 5 shows the overall loyalty matrix, as well as the loyalty matrices for
customer categories A-C. We see that there are differences in the different
customer categories’ loyalty toward Dagbladet Børsen. Thus, 36 per cent of A
subscribers (continuers) are ambassadors, whereas only 19 per cent of B or C
subscribers (stoppers and know-nots) are that. Also, 69 per cent of A subscribers
are loyal to Dagbladet Børsen; the numbers for B and C subscribers are 43 and 53
per cent respectively. Because of this it was strategically decided to set up
activities that would be directed toward the individual subscriber and ensure a
one-to-one dialogue with the subscribers.

Implementation
The prioritized development projects are initiated and the necessary
adjustments are made in this phase. The client company’s ability to manage
projects is of key importance. Furthermore, it is imperative that motivation on
the CRM project is maintained by continuous commitment from senior
MIP management. A central project in connection to this phase is the upgrading, or
22,2 adjustment, of the client company’s database and CRM facilities. This is where
the company’s IT supplier becomes of importance. It is interesting to note that
SJP is not affiliated with any IT supplier and, therefore, can consult clients
independently and objectively. To make the one-to-one dialogue possible, it
was necessary to improve the customer database. An important aspect in this
172 dialogue is for the publisher to follow up each subscription when the date for
renewal approaches:
Some of the things that we did later was to work hard at upgrading to year-long
subscriptions. This has been a part of the battery of activities we put in place in order to keep
communicating with our subscribers. That is, to be better at keeping people as subscribers,
and to present arguments that would make them stay (Sales and marketing director,
Dagbladet Børsen).
When a customer signs up for a one-year subscription he thus has access to a
variety of services that other subscribers or readers do not have, including
Executive Summary, Børsen-line, and the possibility for receiving the latest
news on specified topics via e-mail. (At a later stage, the publisher decided to
offer every subscriber with news on specified topics, as it believed that this
service was key in customer retention at all levels.) Currently, some 60-65 per
cent of the subscribers have signed up for a one-year period, which should be
compared with the 35-40 per cent in 1997. This also means that the number of
new subscriptions has fallen, as the subscription period is often one year
instead of one, three, or six months. However, the tendency of one-year
subscribers to continue with their subscription is much higher than that of
other subscribers.

Management development
Management development and employee involvement are often dealt with
simultaneously. In order to ensure a successful CRM implementation, it is
crucial to have an ongoing supply of CRM competencies in the organization.
Two competencies development programmes are, therefore, put together; one
for managers and the other for employees. In general, the companies must
understand the positive correlation between customer loyalty, employee
loyalty, and profit, which means that managers must master loyalty-based
management (Reichheld, 1993). When a company wants to realize its CRM
strategy the senior management must develop accordingly. Employees must be
loyal, as their creation is important in all essential business situations and
processes.

Employee involvement
With regard to employee involvement, the purpose is to help the client
company in formulating strategies, developing systems, and implementing
solutions that will bring a significant increase of employee loyalty. This is CRM
accomplished by: programme: a
.
identifying how the employees contribute to and/or obstruct the internal case study
business processes in the organization;
.
creating coherence and synergy between the employee analyses and
education and training activities in the organization; and 173
.
adapting the employee analyses and education and training activities to
the overall business strategy of the organization and to the desire for
increased profitability.
At this time, Dagbladet Børsen had not worked actively with employee
involvement. However, analysis of employees should answer the following
questions:
.
How loyal are the client company’s employees?
.
How satisfied are the employees?
.
How attractive is the client company to the employees, compared to other
companies?
.
How committed are the employees?
.
For how long does the company expect employees to remain with the
company?
It is necessary to go through a strategy development process with regard to the
employees. Such an employee loyalty strategy has two levels:
(1) identification and prioritization of the most important internal
productive processes in the organization, as well as the prospective
objectives for these processes; and
(2) determination of how the productive processes in the organization are
enhanced, or obstructed, by employee loyalty.
The productive processes are connected with the following six areas:
(1) innovation and creativity;
(2) productivity and efficiency;
(3) customer handling and service;
(4) colleague handling and cross-functional processes and sharing of
knowledge;
(5) ambassador role; and
(6) seniority.
The employee loyalty efforts consist of the following strategic focus areas:
.
organizational development;
.
management development;
MIP .
corporate identity development;
22,2 .
teambuilding; and
.
competence development.
These focus areas generally apply to many organizations and industries even
though the need for efforts within each focus area varies significantly from
174 organization to organization.

Evaluation of loyalty-building processes

Until this moment, we have looked at what the publisher did in 1997 and, to
some extent, 1999. However, the project was carried on until 2001. The
questionnaire, which was sent out to subscribers, was the same in 1997 and
1999, but had changed somewhat in 2001 mostly due to changes in what the
newspaper offered its subscribers. The 2001 questionnaire has not been
included in the paper. It was possible to draw further conclusions:
The most important thing [in relation to the loyalty project] is that it is possible to track. We
did not have any possibility to carry out comparisons when we saw a loyalty matrix the first
time. Is it good, or is it bad? There are some numbers for the industry as such. The interesting
thing is, however, that we can see whether things have increased or decreased the second or
third time we ask about it. Then you have to think about these sorts of things. What is the
reason behind this? (Sales and marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).
Some 70 per cent of the subscribers believe that they are kept up-to-date with
relevant information. More subscribers are aware of Børsen Online (81
compared to 57.6 per cent) that is used by many people (46.8 compared to 13.3
per cent). Subscribers’ satisfaction with Dagbladet Børsen has been
consolidated. The questions that relate directly to loyalty have been
summarised in Table IV.
The client company’s ability to perform in relation to the
loyalty-generating processes will determine if the investments in the
CRM programme will be profitable over time. Therefore, it is essential that
these processes are monitored on an ongoing basis, and that the company
keeps working on increasing its performance. In January 1998, there were
38,008 subscribers (27,607 regular subscribers and 4,661 were relatively
new). In August 2002, the same numbers were 53,106, 33,704, and 5,311
respectively.
In order to monitor customer loyalty, the following three components were
used in the CRM programme:
(1) the customer retention rate, which expresses a company’s ability to
retain its customers over a year[4];
(2) the share of a customer’s account or, as it is also known as, the share of a
customer’s wallet; and
(3) the ambassador degree, which means the extent to which the present
customers will recommend the company to potential customers.
 CRM
Question Per cent
programme: a
All in all, how satisfied are you with Børsen? Very satisfied 49.6 case study
Satisfied 48.4
Unsatisfied 1.3
Very unsatisfied 0.1
Don’t know 0.6 175
Won’t say 0
Do you think that Børsen has improved or Better 28.1
worsened over the last year? Not changed 56.1
Worse 2.3
Don’t know 13.4
Won’t say 0.1
How attractive do you find Børsen compared with More attractive 69.3
other similar news publishers? Just as attractive 23.6
Less attractive 2.2
Don’t know 4.8
Won’t say 0.1
Would you recommend Børsen as a job-relevant Most definitely 70.6
medium? Probably 23.7
Probably not 2.6
Most definitely not 0.7
Don’t know 2.2
Won’t say 0.2
Do you expect to subscribe to Børsen in one year’s Most definitely 73.4
time Probably 19.1
Probably not 2.5
Most definitely not 1.2 Table IV.
Don’t know 3.8 Loyalty questionnaire,
Won’t say 0 2001

It is interesting to follow the loyalty matrix over the four-year period of the
CRM project (Figure 6).
When moving diagonally from one loyalty cell to the loyalty cell that is just
above in terms of satisfaction and attraction (e.g. from “lost” to “at risk”),
according to the sales and marketing director, between 20 and 30 per cent more
of subscribers would answer “yes” to the following statement: “I will definitely
renew my subscription to Børsen” (Figure 7).
Although the exact value of each customer segment has not been followed in
the monitoring of the programme, it is possible to make some estimations of it,
as a DKK2,500 year subscription contributes with between 40 and 70 per cent
(depending on way of delivery) and revenues from advertisements. It should be
noted that revenues from advertisements should be spread over the total
number of people reading the newspaper. The latest 2001 figures show that
MIP
22,2

176

Figure 6.
The loyalty matrix for
DB, 1997-2001

Figure 7.
The loyalty matrix:
percentage of
subscribers who answer
“yes” to “I will definitely
renew my subscription to
Børsen”, 1997-2001

some 230,000 people are reading it, and that the newspaper has revenues of
about DKK200 million from advertisements. In other words, each reader
generates approximately DKK870 a year so that each new subscription results
in some DKK2,000, as each newspaper is read by two-three people. Over the
period 1997-2001, revenues from advertisements have increased by about 45
per cent.
Overall, the publisher spends less effort on winning new customers, and
more effort on developing the product:
 What we did five years ago was simply just marketing and marketing, without any thought CRM
behind. The product did not change. Those subscribers who signed up very quickly left
again. That meant that a lot of money was spent on keeping a somewhat constant level of programme: a
subscriptions. [. . .] Now we can concentrate on attracting certain groups of people and do case study
something extra for them, and move them toward the green segment [in the loyalty matrix]
(Sales and marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).

177
Conclusions
Contributions to academic theory
As stated in the introduction, few published empirical studies have examined
the design, implementation, and monitoring of CRM programmes at a practical
level. Our study provides detailed information on a CRM programme that a
Danish newspaper publisher has successfully designed and later implemented
over a four-year long period. The monitoring of the programme reveals
impressive returns on the loyalty processes: the newspaper circulation has
increased by 40 per cent and advertising revenue by 50 per cent, while total
revenue has more than doubled. It is possible from this case study and other
similar ones in the marketing literature to start building a database of best
CRM practice that can be further tested.

Contributions to managerial practice

The case study illustrates that to run a project that falls outside a firm’s usual
area it is advisable to seek the advice from an external consulting firm. It is key
to secure commitment from the organization, as well as the necessary
resources. In this particular case, this did not fully happen as the original
project organization was later merged with the regular organizational structure
and this was, says the sales and marketing director, the biggest defeat to the
CRM project team, and caused frustration among all employees. The CRM
project required that employees from different departments worked together:
Børsen is lucky in the sense that everyone who works here [. . .] is interested in working on
assignments outside of their expertise area (Marketing coordinator, Dagbladet Børsen).

This is a culture that has changed. When I think back in time it used to be different
[. . .] People have become more curious. They take initiatives [. . .] They use networks in
order to deal with the problems. The management has been good at saying, “it is all
right to leave one’s desk and do other things” (Subscription manager, Dagbladet Børsen).
The case also illustrates how important it is to obtain, and to use in an
intelligent way, information about the customers and the business processes
that drive loyalty. Overall, a key managerial lesson has been to adhere to a
project although people within the organization may be sceptical about its
philosophy. The project made the importance of CRM visible to everyone
within the organization:
What is good about such a big project is that it becomes visible to everyone. It may be that
some people know that we ought to keep our customers. However, it is not necessarily so that
MIP people try to act accordingly. I definitely believe that such a project can visualize such
problems (Marketing coordinator, Dagbladet Børsen).
22,2
However, the case also illustrates that often a project does not come with the
necessary financial resources or the managerial support, and that this creates
problems. Another problem is that many other programmes, which have been
178 launched in the past, were just fads and this makes it difficult to win support
from the employees:
What I do remember is that our subscription manager and [sales and marketing director]
were committed to this loyalty project. However, [the editor-in-chief] did not advertise in a big
assembly that now we run the business on CRM. This was not the way it happened [. . .] I
think that the importance of the project was understood in the subscription department and
the marketing department. I do not think, however, that this has been the case for the rest of
the house (Marketing coordinator, Dagbladet Børsen).

It has probably also to do with the fact that we have been running ISO 9000 in the mid-90s
(Sales and marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).

If things do not come from [the editor-in-chief] then you need a certain position in order to deal
satisfactorily with such big projects. Where do you find your alliances? You certainly need
the network (Database manager, Dagbladet Børsen).

We discussed whether it would be logical to use our resources in a more optimal way and, at
the same time, accepted a lower number of subscribers. This was not possible for us. It was
due to the fact that the new editor had to show an instant success in terms of the
rehabilitation of the product. We succeeded, however, but it could have gone wrong (Sales
and marketing director, Dagbladet Børsen).
Finally, although the principles behind the loyalty project may be simple, it
was only because an external consulting firm was brought in that the publisher
succeeded in implementing the project. However, after having run the project,
the publisher is trained to do it single-handedly.

Future challenges: opportunities for academics and managers

In terms of academic research, a promising avenue for future research is to
document the value of the different loyalty processes. Would it perhaps be
possible to identify what the value (financial and otherwise) is of these
processes, some of which surely are more valuable than others? A map linking
processes with value would be most useful to managers:
We have a system that can do a lot of things, but not what CRM really is all about. That is, the
individualization of customer relationships. We miss some features in our system [. . .] For
example, we are not able to deal with all the information we have from the 1,000 or 2,000
questionnaires. This information has been used for the loyalty project, but we have not
categorized each customer as “yellow”, “red”, or “green”. We would like to be able to push a
button so that, with all of the gathered information, a letter of renewal of subscription could
be printed in one of 17 versions, or perhaps totally individualized letter (Sales and marketing
director, Dagbladet Børsen).
In the long run, the publisher would like to have all employees evaluating their CRM
work in terms of the effect on customer loyalty processes. programme: a
case study
Notes
1. 22 per cent (ambassadors) + (25 + 9) per cent (loyal customers) ¼ 56 per cent.
2. 2 per cent (lost customers) + (1 + 2) per cent (on the look-out customers) ¼ 5 per cent. 179
3. (0 + 40 + 0) per cent (at risk customers) ¼ 40 per cent.
4. The retention rate is closely connected to the churn of the customer mass. That is, if a
company has a customer retention rate of, say, 80 per cent, the churn of the customer mass is
20 per cent. This again means that the company, after a period of 5 years, has rotated its
customer base one time.

References
Baum, R.J., Locke, E.A. and Smith, K.G. (2001), “A multidimensional model of venture growth”,
Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 292-303.
Brodie, R.J., Coviello, N.E., Brookes, R.W. and Little, V. (1997), “Towards a paradigm shift in
marketing: an examination of current marketing practices”, Journal of Marketing
Management, Vol. 13 No. 5, pp. 383-406.
Brookes, R., Brodie, R. and Lindgreen, A. (2002), “Value management in marketing organisations:
comparing academic, business press and middle management discourses”, Journal of
Relationship Marketing.
Buttle, F. (1996), “Relationship marketing”, in Buttle, F. (Ed.), Relationship Marketing: Theory
and Practice, Paul Chapman Publishing, London, pp. 1-16.
Christopher, M., Payne, A. and Ballantyne, D. (1991), Relationship Marketing: Bringing Quality,
Customer Service, and Marketing Together, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
Doyle, P. (2000), Value-Based Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Corporate Growth and
Shareholder Value, Wiley, Chichester.
Feather, F. (2000), Future Consumer.com: The Webolution of Shopping to 2010, Warwick
Publishing, Toronto.
Ferrell, O.C., Hartline, M.D., Lucas, G.H. Jr and Luck, D. (1999), Marketing Strategy, The Dryden
Press/Harcourt Brace College Publishers, London.
Gummesson, E. (1999), Total Relationship Marketing: Rethinking Marketing Management from
4Ps to 30Rs, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
Hunt, S.D. (2000), A General Theory of Competition, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Jackson, B.B. (1985), Winning and Keeping Industrial Customers, Lexington Books, Lexington,
MA.
Lindgreen, A., Davis, R., Brodie, R.J. and Buchanan-Oliver, M. (2000), “Pluralism in contemporary
marketing practice”, The International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 6,
pp. 294-308.
Miles, B. and Huberman, A.M. (1994), Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook,
2nd ed., Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Morgan, R.M. and Hunt, S.D. (1994), “The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing”,
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 3, pp. 20-38.
Price, L.L. and Arnould, E.J. (1998), “Commercial friendships: service provider-client
relationships in context”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 63 No. 4, pp. 38-56.
MIP Reichheld, F.F. (1993), “Loyalty-based management”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 71 No. 2,
pp. 64-73.
22,2 Reichheld, F.F. (1996), The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting
Value, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
Yin, R.K. (1994), Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 2nd ed., Sage Publications,
Thousand Oaks, CA.
180
Further reading
Palmer, R. (2001), “A model of relationship marketing in market maturity”, PhD thesis, School of
Management, Cranfield University, Cranfield.

Appendix 1. Interview guide

First series of questions
(This part of the interview guide builds upon the model that has been developed by SJP.)
Could you please walk me through . . .
.
commitment of senior management;
.
situational report;
.
analysis;
.
strategy formulation;
. implementation;
.
management development;
.
employee involvement;
.
evaluation of loyalty-building processes.

Second series of questions

(This part of the interview guide builds upon Ferrell et al. (1999), pp. 355-82.)
The external environment: competitive forces
.
Who are our major competitors (for example, segment rivalry)? What are their
characteristics (size, growth, profitability, strategies, and target markets)?
.
Who are brand competitors, product competitors, and generic competitors?
.
What are our competitors’ key strengths and weaknesses?
.
What are our competitors’ key marketing capabilities in terms of products, distribution,
promotions, and pricing?
.
What response can we expect from our competitors if we change our marketing strategy?
.
Is the competitive set likely to change in the future? If so, how? Who are our new
competitors likely to be?
The external environment: changes in technology
.
What impact has changing technology had on our customers?
.
What technological changes will affect the way we operate or manufacture our products?
.
What technological changes will affect the way we conduct marketing activities, such as
distribution or promotion?
.
Do current technologies exist that we are not using to their fullest potential in making our
marketing activities more effective and efficient?
.
Do any technological advances threaten to make our product(s) obsolete (i.e. threat of CRM
substitutes)?
programme: a
The external environment: economic growth and stability case study
.
What are the current spending patterns of customers in our target market(s)? Are they
buying less or more of our product and why?
181
The external environment: the customer environment
.
Who are our current and potential customers?
.
What do our customers do with our products?
.
Where do our customers purchase our products?
.
When do our customers purchase our products?
.
Why (and how) do our customers select our product (i.e. benefits, customer needs, etc.)?
.
Why do potential customers not purchase our products?
The internal (organizational) environment
.
Review of marketing goals, objectives, and performance
.
Review of current and anticipated organizational resources
.
Review of current and anticipated cultural and structural issues.
SWOT analysis
.
strengths;
.
weaknesses;
.
opportunities;
.
threats;
.
matching, converting, minimizing, and avoiding strategies.
Marketing goals and objectives
Marketing strategies
.
target market;
.
marketing mix;
.
key customer and competitor reactions.
Marketing implementation
.
Description of overall approach to implementation, as well as internal marketing
activities.
Evaluation and control
.
Financial analysis.
MIP Appendix 2.
22,2
1997 1999

A. What is your job?

1 Director 40 48
182 2 Manager 20 22
3 Other 41 30
B. What is your specialist area?
1 General administration 33 40
2 Economics/finance 17 17
3 Production 4 3
4 EDB/IT 6 3
5 Purchase/logistics 2 2
6 Sales/marketing 16 13
7 Administration 5 6
8 HRM 1 2
9 Other 17 13
C. What is your age group?
1 Younger than 30 years 12 6
2 30-40 years 15 26
3 41-50 years 28 28
4 51-60 years 28 31
5 61-70 years 6 7
6 Older than 70 years 1 1
D. Are you . . .
1 Female 11 12
2 Male 89 88
E. How many copies are daily sent to your firm?
F. To which ZIP code is the copy that you read the most sent?
G. Where do you get the copy that you read the most?
1 I receive Børsen on my private address early in
the morning 31
2 I receive Børsen on my private address through
regular mail 60 11
3 I receive my own copy of Børsen on my job 16 20
4 I receive a copy of Børsen on my job 18 27
5 I read Børsen on my job 6 13
(If you have answered question 5 under G please do not answer
question H)
H. Will your subscription to Børsen be renewed when it expires
the next time?
1 Yes, most definite 37 56
2 Yes, probably 53 39
3 Probably not 9 4
4 Most definite not 1 1
I. Who pays for the copy of Børsen that you read the most frequently?
Table AI. 1 The firm 70 84
Loyalty questionnaire, 2 Myself 30 16
1997 and 1999 (continued)
 1997 1999 CRM
programme: a
J. What is your preferred media for finding job-relevant information? case study
(Please tick the three most preferred media)
1 Erhvervs-Bladet 19 16
2 Berlingske Tidende 41 37
3 Jyllands-Posten 53 43 183
4 Børsen 95 87
5 Børsens Nyhedsmagasin 11 9
6 Børsen Online 2
7 Mandag Morgen 8 6
8 Økonomisk Ugebrev (Børsen) 3 2
9 Regionalt dagblad 5 5
10 Financial Times 4 3
11 Business Week 1 0
12 Fortune 0 0
13 The Economist 2 2
14 TV 28 26
15 Radio 5 5
16 Internet 8 15
17 Other 7 4
K. In which sector are you employed?
1 Finance 14 14
2 Transportation 4 4
3 Production 14 14
4 Trade and service 24 25
5 Construction 5 6
6 Self employed 11 10
7 Liberal . . . 12 10
8 Other 17 16
L. How many employees in your firm ought to read Børsen?
M. When do you read Børsen?
(You may tick more than once)
1 Before work starts 38 36
2 During work 41 50
3 After work has finished 40 38
N. How do you feel Børsen has changed over the past 12 months?
1 Has become much better 5
2 Has become somewhat better 33
3 No change 58
4 Has become somewhat worse 4
5 Has become much worse 1
O. What are your primary areas of interest with regard to
job-related information?
(You may tick more than once)
1 Finance 68 63
2 Transportation 7 10
3 Private economy 42 37
4 Property 26 18
(continued) Table AI.
MIP 1997 1999
22,2
5 IT 21 31
6 Sales and marketing 41 30
7 Employment and management 36 40
8 Companies 58 67
184 9 Politics 31 33
10 International affairs 21 32
11 Law 19 12
12 Economy 52 54
13 Other 4 4
P. Do you expect to subscribe to Børsen in three years’ time?
1 Most definite 30
2 Probably 64
3 Probably not 6
4 Most definite not 0
Q. All in all, are you satisfied with Børsen?
1 Very satisfied 25 27
2 Satisfied 69 71
3 Unsatisfied 6 2
4 Very unsatisfied 0 0
R. Would you recommend Børsen as a job-relevant medium?
1 Most definite 21 33
2 Probably 69 63
3 Probably not 10 4
4 Most definite not 0 0
S. Do you have any say in regard to subscriptions to Børsen?
1 I decide how many subscriptions the firm will
take out 52 43
2 I decide how many subscriptions my department
will take out 10 19
3 I decide whether I want to continue my own
subscription 36 30
4 I have no say in regard to subscriptions to Børsen 3 10
T. How attractive do you find Børsen compared with other similar
news publishers?
1 More attractive 47 51
2 Just as attractive 49 48
3 Less attractive 4 1
U. Did you know that subscribers to Børsen have access to Børsen Online?
1 Yes 72
2 No 28
V. Do you have access to Internet?
1 Yes, on my job 75
2 Yes, at home 68
3 No 10
W. If yes, do you use Børsen Online?
1 Yes, daily 3
2 Yes, several times a week 11
Table AI. (continued)
 1997 1999 CRM
programme: a
3 Yes, but only seldomly 32 case study
4 No, never 55
(If you have answered questions 1, 2, or 3 under W please answer X)
X. What parts [of Børsen Online] do you use?
1 Dagens Nyheder 25 185
2 Latest edition of Børsen 5
3 Job, car, and property 7
4 Børsen Archive 12
5 Knowledge centre on electronic commerce 3
6 Børsen Informatik 7
7 Company-related data 17
8 Debate 1
Y. Do you feel that Børsen Online has made subscription to
Børsen more attractive than what it was earlier?
1 Yes, very much 8
2 Yes, to some extent 43
3 No, it has had no impact 49

Z. How do you find the price of your subscription to Børsen?

1 Very reasonable 5
2 Reasonable 86
3 Not reasonable 9
4 Not reasonable at all 0

Æ. Are you aware of Børsen Executive Summary, free of charge

for subscribers?
1 Yes, I receive it on a regular basis 11
2 Yes, but I do not receive it 16
3 No, but it sounds interesting 59
4 No, it does not have my interest 14

Ø. Are you aware of Børsen’s Gazelle Club?

1 Yes, I am a member myself 4
2 Yes, but I am not a member myself 42
3 No, but it sounds interesting 27
4 No, it does not have my interest 27
Note: All numbers have been given in percentages Table AI.
MIP Appendix 3.
22,2
Statement Total “Continuers” “Stoppers” “Know-nots”

There is not enough focus on small-and

medium-sized companies 39.5 37.1 45.0 38.4
186 There is not enough on private investment 39.1 39.4 36.1 40.8
I would like articles that take a critical look at
political decisions and the consequences of such
decisions 35.7 33.7 47.1 30.2
I would like analyses of smaller-sized public
companies 35.5 36.0 38.7 32.7
I would like critical analyses of companies 35.3 34.1 39.2 33.9
There is not enough focus on those factors that
determine what the economic results will be for a
firm 34.6 33.1 39.7 32.8
I would like cases on change management that
have been implemented successfully 33.6 30.7 38.5 33.5
There are too few articles on what are the causes
in share changes in public companies 30.2 31.1 26.3 32.0
There are few articles on successful companies 28.9 26.0 30.3 30.9
There is not enough focus on Denmark’s most
important export markets 28.6 25.3 29.3 31.3
Børsen writes too often about the same five-ten
companies 27.8 25.3 34.8 25.9
There is not enough on sales and marketing 26.3 25.7 27.0 26.5
There are few articles on management 26.3 26.1 23.9 28.0
Børsen does not bring articles on less famous
business leaders 25.6 27.6 23.3 25.3
There is no schedule on when annual reports and
economic key figures are published 25.5 29.9 18.2 26.2
Børsen is not published on Saturdays 23.7 24.6 21.5 24.1
There are few positive stories (a good story seems
to be one related to a scandal) 17.8 13.5 19.0 21.0
The Monday Børsen is not up-to-date 17.1 16.0 20.7 15.8
Børsen is not customized to what I need 15.3 12.4 21.1 14.3
Table AII. Articles are not based on sound research 14.5 15.9 14.2 13.5
Comparison of customer I do not know the benefits of using Børsen Online 5.4 4.7 5.2 6.2
relationships Note: For continuers and stoppers, numbers in italic indicate a major problem