Implementing a Marketing Database

Every company gathers information on customer preferences and buying history in order to improve their long-term customer relationships. Maintaining a customer database requires protecting the confidentiality of the information.

Consider the following scenario:

Sara is the marketing manager of a small human resource (HR) consultancy firm. She wants to address improving customer relations and understanding and managing consumer behavior. She would like to implement a process of using a database to assist her company in its marketing efforts. She is also concerned about online privacy versus off-line privacy.

Now, respond to the following:

• How would you address Sara's concern about the level of privacy in an online versus off-line database?
• What are ways in which she might be able to use the database for better understanding consumer behavior and building customer relationships? Provide at least five such ways.