Correspondence: Elana R. Anderson, Unica Corporation 170 Tracer Lane Waltham, MA 02451, USA. Tel: +1 781 487 8680; Fax: +1 781 890 2557; E-mail: eanderson@unica.com

¹is Vice President of Product Marketing and Strategy at Unica. With nearly 20 years of marketing and technology consulting experience, Anderson is a highly regarded marketing software visionary, who previously served as Vice President and Research Director of the marketing practice at Forrester Research. During her tenure at Forrester, Anderson directed the firm's marketing practice and focused on customer marketing strategy, relationship marketing, interactive marketing, customer analytics and marketing technology. Before joining Forrester in 2002, Anderson spent nearly 15 years as a consultant with firms including Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and Tessera Enterprise Systems. She has been exclusively focused on marketing strategy and technology since 1995, and has led successful marketing strategy and technology implementation projects for Fortune 500 firms in the retail, high-tech and financial services verticals. Anderson shares her insights in her blog at www.nxteramarketing.com.

Received 25 November 2008.

Abstract

This paper explains how marketers must redefine their approach to reflect radical shifts in channels and customer behaviour — including an accelerating shift toward addressability, growing convergence between online and direct channels, and increasing customer power to shape marketing dialogues and buying experiences. The author discusses how marketers must engage customers and prospects in a personal, cross-channel conversation that builds upon that individual's past and current behaviour. She also explains how marketers must listen to all information provided, analyse it and respond — sometimes in real-time — in ways that are compelling, timely and relevant. Finally, the author discusses the fundamentally new marketing tools, stronger integration and revamped organisational structure that will be required to achieve these goals.