SAMENVATTING PRESENTATIE Martin Hermsen After years of concentrating on cost reduction and operational efficiency, companies are once again putting growth at the top of the strategic agenda. And many are looking to customer loyalty as a critical source of that growth. A recent study by Accenture and the Conference Board found that leaders plan to focus on acquiring new customers, increasing customer retention and loyalty, increasing revenue from current customers, and building customer service capabilities. Achieving these strategic goals will not be easy. Commoditization, product substitution, and brand fragmentation run rampant in many industries. Customer demographics, needs, behaviors, and even geographic location are changing. Customers are growing ever more sophisticated, finicky, and willing to bolt at the slightest provocation. Noise overload makes it hard to reach them. Companies’ strategic goals and the barriers to realizing them make marketing and customer management an essential business function. But marketing will have to find new ways of acquiring and retaining customers as both of these activities are key to the growth agenda and both face their own challenges. Thinking customer acquisition, marketing must find relief for consumers who are drowning in choices. Marketing must define messages and offerings that are relevant to today’s customers. And marketing must grapple with the increasing cost of acquisition that is putting upward pressure on price. Thinking customer retention, marketing must take a holistic view of the customer and focus on earning the customer’s business. This will often mean greater reliance on the human touch and less on technology. Marketing has to get these things right because the cost of switching is nominal. During his presentation Martin will discuss what companies can learn from the leaders that achieved to transform their marketing function into High Performance marketing.