Toward an Individual Customer Profitability Model

Although most published customer lifetime value models focus on strategic-level marketing decisions, managers also need models that enable them to make resource allocation decisions for individual customers. A common misperception among scholars and managers is that it is necessary to use individual-level customer profitability models to make such decisions. This article argues that a segment-based approach to customer profitability analysis can be a reasonable alternative to an individual model. The proposed stochastic segment-based approach retains the actionable information associated with individual-level analysis while also maintaining the simplicity of the more aggregate-level models. In this article, the authors develop such a segment-based assessment of customer profitability and then briefly describe an example of a major European retailer that successfully uses the approach to manage its customer base. Directions for future research in the area of stochastic customer equity modeling are also discussed.