More Models, Inc.--Infomediaries

 

One of the most important differentiating points for marketers is the quality of customer information. Good customer information allows them to channel their marketing efforts in a manner that results in ensuring that their most valuable and paying customers do more business with them.

With useful customer information, marketers could tailor their offerings to individual needs, improve customer satisfaction and retention and identify opportunities for newer products and services. As the quality and quantity of customer information increases, so does the effectiveness and efficiency of marketers.

Internet technologies are helping businesses gather more useful information about their customers. A significant outcome of these technologies is the ease with which marketing people could collect great amounts of information about their customers. Asking for, collecting and analyzing information has become not only easier, but also more efficient. Similarly, it is easier for the customers to provide information.

This has given rise to a new form of business model. Back in 1997, John Hagel III, author of Net Gain and Net Worth along with Jeffrey F. Rayport of Harvard Business School, coined the term "Infomediary"--combining information and intermediary--in the Harvard Business Review article "Coming Battle For Customer Information."

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