Recently, a research team at the W. P. Carey School of Business began to wonder whether Markowitz's, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, "portfolio theory" might be applied in the world of marketing as well.
Marketing professors Ruth Bolton, Michael Hutt and Beth Walker, and Crina Tarasi, a doctoral student in marketing, have proposed that a company's choice of customers is every bit the "investment decision" that an investors' choice of stocks is.
Accordingly, the research team suggests companies would be wise to identify the risk-return characteristics of all of their potential customers, then build a "customer portfolio" that, like a well-designed investment portfolio, can reap returns in both good times and bad -- and shield against tough times in the marketplace.
Reduce Risk by Building a Diversified 'Portfolio' of Customers
Hat Tip : cabarnet
