"The age of mass marketing is over, killed off by the immense power of technology which allows companies, in theory at least, to talk to their customers as individuals or as McKean puts it "segments of one". It means that any company worth its salt these days aspires to have the same sort of informed relationship with its clientele that a corner grocer would have done a century ago. They want to know how the baby is doing, how your health is or whether your husband has just got a pay rise, because each scrap of information provides a valuable selling opportunity. This information is gathered principally through customer loyalty schemes and other forms of "data capture" which generate vast amount of information and enable companies to target their customers with relevant offers. Yet according to John McKean, Executive Director of the Centere For Information Based Competition, less than five per cent of companies achieve the full potential of their customer relationship initiatives. The trouble is that firms are investing in massive customer databases and networks without investing in the other elements needed to make them effective, argues McKean. "Most firms believe that the majority of drivers of information competency are technological, while the reality is that the drivers are of a non-technological nature which will make it effective," he says. This important book shows exactly how companies can engage every part of their organisation, from human resources to organisational structure in order to succeed. Firms that do succeed in becoming Information Masters gain such competitive edge that they are able to attack their rivals and their rivals don't even know it's happening. This isn't an easy book. It's not even an especially pleasurable read. But anyone interested in marketing, data, information or just the bottom line will find its insights utterly riveting and very surprising." -- Alex Benady, AMAZON