Many argue that Event Based Marketing has huge potential. According to the Gartner Group (2006) ”event-triggered marketing yields a level of response rate typically five times greater than that obtained using traditional marketing approaches.” But what is it really?

Event-based marketing analyzes customer behavior through advanced database technology. Based on significant changes in customer behavior a signal is triggered that initiate relevant, personal dialogue with the customer. Hence the customer is contacted when the need is the greatest and when the customer is most receptive to interaction with the company. ”EBM is a strategic process designed to enhance the dialogue and relationship a company has with each of its customers” (Chris Twogood, “The Power of Event-Based Marketing, 2003)

As event-based marketing is relatively new, there are still many aspects of the concept, that are unexplored, and various pitfalls to be avoided for successful use of the concept. Furthermore, it requires a comprehensive customer database that contains specific knowledge about each customer. In other words, event based marketing is fairly resource intensive without an existing customer database. However, if properly implemented, the concept can allow for critical competitive advantage,. ”Enormous opportunities arise when customer events can be staged and managed using IT-based event triggers. As for the role of data warehousing, the best analytical tool only has business value when it can access and use data ”( Bartikowski, Boris; Braunmüller, Peter, “Critical events and next best activities in relationship marketing).