Most corporate CEOs in their hearts would be thanking their competitors, as it is the competition that brings about the best in companies. Market share of companies are by far the most prized asset of any company.  To keep market share on ever increasing path in the face of tough competition requires continuous uncompromising onslaught on the psyche of the customers, prospective customers of brand fitness to their needs and the Top of the mind recall. The CRM, Customer Relationship Management, which forms the bedrock of the book has been in existence for centuries and yet with severe and chaotic at times, unprincipled competition CRM has become the focus of marketers around the world and it has taken the cecntre-stage in the marketing of most companies. Even the monopoly companies have realized the importance of CRM as they could land up in severe competitive arena if they did not hold their customers firmly by hand with no chance of letting it go. Increase in market share comes mainly by, taking business from competition, selling more to existing buyers, persuading non-buyers to start buying their brand and expanding their geographic coverage of sales. These must include “Customer interaction” and efforts of winning them over. The book covers in great detail these areas with emphasis on the different levels of customers, including the first level customers the Distribution Channel members.

The area of customer communications forms a significant part of CRM and therefore, has found the pride of place in the book, including, personal communication, advertising, sales promotion, publicity and Public Relations. CRM has somehow got mixed with unethical practices that certain marketers have been using to pull the customers by unprincipled means. These have, fortunately backfired on these marketers and therefore must be eschewed and the idea has been encapsulated to highlight the pitfalls that surface in such misadventures. Well thought out and class tested selected cases that finds its place in the book, along with the systematic unfolding of the latest “State of the Art” CRM practices make reading the book not only interesting for the readers but also its lucid style, puts it in the top bracket.