Marketing and the customer
Within the marketing literature, there has been a
shift of emphasis from revenues to profits,
including attracting and retaining profitable
customers (Foster and Gupta, 1994). Mulhern
(1999) claimed that customer profitability can
be a basis for deciding on the allocation of
marketing resources, and these resources are
best allocated to the most profitable customers
or segments. Ryals (2003) argued that the role
of marketing is to identify profitable customers
and to apply retention strategies that reduce the
risk of defection.