Database Marketing

“Database marketing” is a form of direct marketing whereby customer data are used to generate personalized interactions with customers. Database marketing is predicated on the use of technology to acquire, organize, systematize, and manage data for purposes of more effective management of knowledge held in corporate databases. Knowledge discovery and data augmentation tools are applied to extract and systematize complex and voluminous customer or business data, so that to obtain a “360‐degree view” of customers. Although in existence for half a century, the concept has been promoted since the 1980s by the wider adoption of computer technology. Availability and importance of customer data are increasing, with data on incomes, transaction history, biographical data, and other personal details captured internally from customers or bought from other companies. Database marketing is comparable to transactional marketing, and not relationship marketing, although some academics have recently noted that “evolutionary database marketing” approaches are appropriate to building longer term relations with customers. Critical marketing scholars describe database marketing practices as controlling and disciplinary mechanisms which help marketers observe, document, individualize, categorize, and target their customers.