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4.19: Video- Harley Davidson Customer Relationships

  • Page ID
    47972
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    Once a company understands its buyer personas, how can it match those to real people who will buy its products or services? Today, companies use significant amounts of data and complex technology systems to create the right match in what it offers to individuals and groups of buyers.

    The American Marketing Association defines customer relationship management in the following way:

    A discipline in marketing combining database and computer technology with customer service and marketing communications. Customer relationship management seeks to create more meaningful one-on-one communications with the customer by applying customer data (demographic, industry, buying history, etc.) to every communications vehicle. At the simplest level, this would include personalizing e-mail or other communications with customer names. At a more complex level, customer relationship management enables a company to produce a consistent, personalized marketing communication whether the customer sees an ad, visits a Web site, or calls customer service.[1]

    Customer relationship management brings data and technology together with the marketing mix to increase the personal connection with the customer. Let’s look at an example. Harley Davidson has a famously strong brand. This video provides a glimpse into the relationship that customers have with the brand and shows how a new technology is assisting the company in expanding its connection with customers.

    A link to an interactive elements can be found at the bottom of this page.

    You can view the transcript for “Harley Davidson – Community, Brand, IBM” here (opens in new window).

    What are some elements of the Harley Davidson buyer persona?

    How is technology being used for customer relationship management?

    Key Terms

    Buyer persona. Fictional, generalized representations of an ideal customer that help a marketer understand current and potential customers better.

    Customer relationships management. A discipline in marketing combining database and computer technology with customer service and marketing communications. Customer relationship management seeks to create more meaningful one-on-one communications with the customer by applying customer data (demographic, industry, buying history, etc.) to every communications vehicle.


    1. www.ama.org/resources/Pages/Dictionary.aspx?dLetter=C ↵

    Contributors and Attributions

    CC licensed content, Original
    • Video Introduction. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
    All rights reserved content
    • Harley Davidsonu2014Community, Brand, IBM. Authored by: Chris Sparshott. Located at: https://youtu.be/iOF7aAVZMqA. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license

    This page titled 4.19: Video- Harley Davidson Customer Relationships is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lumen Learning via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.