CONNECTION BETWEEN CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND BRAND EQUITY

Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the basic and most crucial elements of the marketing philosophy. CRM puts customers and their satisfaction in the centre by pointing all company's activities towards the customer. The main objective of CRM is to get to know the customer as well as possible so as to help a company deliver better, more appropriate and higher added value to the customer. A strong connection with customers is the key to their satisfaction, especially if this connection is established by recognizing customers' needs and it may therefore become one of the crucial competitive advantages. On the other hand, the main link between the company and the customer is its brand, or brands, where the company itself may be recognized as a brand. Generally speaking, it is possible to say that brand management and brand equity are used increasingly in everyday business. The concept of brand equity has a very important role because brand represents one of the most important assets in globally-known companies. The main objective of this paper was to research the connection between CRM and brand equity. The research showed that, if we use it the right way, CRM can be very useful in building brand equity, brand identity, brand value and customer satisfaction/loyalty.