Risk and Return in Marketing
Supervisor: Lynette Ryals MA (Oxon) MBA PhD FSIP
Which customers to acquire and to retain is a fundamental issue facing businesses today. The customers of a company can be thought of as a portfolio, analogous to a financial portfolio of stocks and shares. Many of the same principles apply to their management: how much should be invested in each customer or customer segment? Where are the greatest risks and greatest returns? How should marketing resource allocation decisions be made?
This is a new field that offers several intriguing areas for doctoral research:
- How can companies maximise the returns on their marketing investment?
- What customer portfolio management strategies do companies use? What strategies could they use?
- Could Real Options, Sharpe Ratios or other portfolio management techniques be useful in managing the customer portfolio?
- What does it mean to talk about the risk of the customer?
- What are the financial and non-financial sources of value in customer relationships?
Candidate profile
Candidates should ideally have at least three years' marketing or sales experience however, candidates from other disciplines will be considered. Note: these topics require candidates to be numerate. A masters degree is desirable but not obligatory.
Candidates with interests in this area are invited to make contact with Professor Lynette Ryals (lynette.ryals@cranfield.ac.uk), setting out a preliminary research agenda as a guide to discussion and indicating what reading you have so far done around your topic.