The forces that motivate customers can be complex. Arch McGill, former vice president of IBM, reminds us that “individual customers perceive the product in their own terms and that these terms may be ‘unique, idiosyncratic, human, emotional, end-of-the-day, irrational, erratic terms.’ ” 5 Different people doing the same thing (e.g., purchasing a commercial office building) may have different needs that motivate them, and each buyer may have several motives for a single action.

The proliferation of market research studies, public opinion polls, surveys, and reports of “averages” makes it easy to fall into the trap of thinking of the customer as a number. The customer is a person, not a statistic. Companies that fully accept this basic truth are likely to adopt a one-to-one marketing strategy. The one-to-one strategy is based on a bedrock concept: Treat different customers differently.6