Correspondence: Richard Cuthbertson, Saïd Business School University of Oxford Oxford OX1 5NY, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1865 288 876; Fax: +44 (0)1865 422 501; E-mail: richard.cuthbertson@sbs.ox.ac.uk

¹is Senior Research Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

²is Director at Red Route International.

Received 5 February 2008.

Abstract

This paper considers the way in which retailers and manufacturers work together to maximise sales. The paper highlights key issues surrounding the successful development of customer relationship management (CRM), and explores these issues with practitioners from a range of leading retail and manufacturing companies in order to identify possible solutions. The results of the analysis show that real collaborative CRM is only possible through aligning attitudes and measurements while acting independently to create combined consumer benefit.