You can't have your customers and eat them too. And yet, the conflicts, contradictions and trade-offs associated with simultaneously pursuing customer equity and brand equity remain largely hidden...at least, for now. As the economy recovers and advertising markets recover with them, companies are once again aggressively pursuing brand value and pouring money into untraceable mass market campaigns.

The question is what that means for the customer. "[C]ompanies that understand the asset value of each customer, and that tailor their marketing efforts (and their costs) to acquire and sustain the highest-value assets, will trump less-focused mass marketers," state Robert C. Blattberg, Gary Getz, and Jacquelyn S. Thomas in their book Customer Equity: Building and Managing Relationships as Valuable Assets. Here's their comparison table...

Unfortunately, that book is three years old now -- and no one has picked up the argument since then. That's a pity. The money that goes into mass ad campaigns won't go into understanding, engaging or cultivating individual customers. Should it? Where, exactly, would those dollars generate their best return -- building brands or building relationships? What's the appropriate mix? These are questions that are rarely being asked in a rigorous way.