Customer knowledge is a strategic element, and its importance is growing all the time. The role of the vast quantities of information available in customer relationship management (CRM) systems, when processed using emerging big data techniques, is still in its infancy. Customer relationship management needs big data to improve customer experience and the right targeting of marketing actions. The study aims at designing a hierarchical model via the fuzzy approach of the indicators of the big data marketing approaches and the possible effects on the CRM. The results suggest that CRM initiatives based on big data could be envisaged as a supportive trend in relation to various managerial and structural dimensions. The study also identified major difficulties of big data analysis in CRM, such as storage, quality, process, and cost issues.
TopIntroduction
Given the processes of globalization and the constant technological revolution, the inherent market challenges facing the company today, concern the abilities to attract customers, maintain brand attractiveness and make it more competitive (Gu et al., 2021). In this context, the company should leverage its own data and data from external sources, to better assess, understand and predict customer preferences, and ensure its competitiveness or mere survival (Alla et al., 2022). Such customer intelligence can help the company to develop strategies to improve its performance and competitive advantage (Hmioui et al., 2020).
The current and constant acceleration of new information technologies has favored the creation and circulation of large volumes of data. This phenomenon is also favored by the constant quest to reduce costs and improve response times (Bentalha et al., 2019). Such opportunities can be seized by the company's relationship marketing, to further develop strong economic, technical and social connections with customers, as valves for successful marketing activities (Kotler & Keller, 2012; Khan et al., 2022). In this sense, Big Data is currently assimilated as a tool for relationship marketing. Its role is appreciated for its ability to participate in data analysis and market prediction (Anshari et al., 2019). It is a technological provision that can help to better understand customer needs and adjust market demand forecasts (ISACA, 2013).
Many companies have made huge investments in collecting, integrating, analyzing and using data for marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) activities, exposing their customers to a large number of marketing messages every day, which often remain ignored unless the recipients find added value (Orenga-Roglá & Chalmeta, 2016). CRM relevance requires deep and accurate data analysis that can ensure potential customers' engagement in the transaction (Sun et al., 2017). Customers understand markets with logical and interpretative processes, and the buying decision depends on the information gathered. Thus, this information becomes decisions that create other information. At this stage, Big Data seeks to develop market understanding via CRM tools linked to customer understanding, product promotion and customer loyalty (Angell & Kraemer, 2017).
This work aims to better understand the issues and implications of the adoption and embedding of Big Data marketing by the enterprise as a tool for improving the effectiveness of the customer relationship, and thus as a lever for value creation, by answering the following question: how to capitalize on the opportunities offered by Big-Data Analytics marketing for the improvement of the customer relationship of the enterprise?
The first part of the paper will deal with the concepts of CRM and Big Data, by analyzing their managerial and theoretical specificities. Then, we will present the analysis model linking these two concepts. Finally, we will interpret, through a hierarchical approach based on the Fuzzy method, the main indicators related to Marketing Big-Data Analytics and its possible effects on customer relationship management.