Automated marketing and the growth of ‘customer compliance’ businesses

A new type of business has grown in the past 10 years, predicated on the technical innovations provided by the Information Society. These innovations affect all aspects of social organisation but this paper attempts to map their effect on businesses only and on companies utilising database marketing in particular. The strategies and systems developed by companies across a range of sectors are in their infancy, and they are innovating and developing at such a pace that they enjoy competitive advantage over traditional businesses. Although enabled by ICT, these businesses have also broken path dependent practices in fulfilment, supply chain and the provision of customer service. Due to commercial reasons, little information is available on the specifics of the operations of these new businesses that we refer to as ‘customer compliance’ businesses. However, their success across sectors, even during the current recession, is obvious. This paper attempts to identify such new practices, link them to current marketing theory, and suggest implications for traditional businesses as well as academic research as the underlying theory is clearly inadequate and lags behind practitioner innovations.