Customer Profitability and Optimal CLV-Based Strategies in a Model of Dynamic Competition

Abstract

We study the optimal customer-acquisition and customer-retention decisions of the representative firm in a dynamic competitive industry. We find that the optimal per-customer retention effort depends positively on customer profitability and is constant over time. The endogenous effective retention rate is higher for more profitable customers, so their proportion in the customer base increases over time. Larger market size and lower competition strength result in higher acquisition and retention expenditures at the firm level, but they do not change per-capita values. The retention effort that maximize a firm's value also maximize individual Customer Lifetime Value, whereas the equilibrium acquisition expenditure maximize the expected average customer value in the corresponding cohort.