ABSTRACT

T he marketing department's role is that o f a customer advocate. It's the department that spearheads the creation of a mutually beneficial buyer-seller relationship — the tenet o f CRM. A marketing department's mandate is to gather data (through various meth­

ods) to help find answers to the age-old questions: # Who are the customers? # What is the target market? # How to nurture a customer relationship? # How to develop trust? # How to develop an interactive dialog with the customer? Then the marketing department is charged with researching and analyzing the

amassed data to determine what the targeted customer wants and needs. Based on the results o f these efforts, the marketing department can develop campaigns which can direct channel selection, advertising, and promotions; provide leads and other data to sales; and even have a hand in product development and pricing.