As a result, a new term, "lifetime customer value" (LCV), has been introduced
into the lexicon of marketers. The idea is that each row/customer of the
database should be analyzed in terms of current and future profitability to the
firm. When a profit figure can be assigned to each customer, the marketing
manager can then decide which customers to target. The past profit that a customer
has produced for the firm is the sum of the margins of all the products
purchased over time less the cost of reaching that customer. or in small clusters.