I started toying with RFM in the mid-80’s. The IBM PC entered the world and I learned how to use Visicalc and Lotus 1,2,3. With widespread computing came the possibility of the marketing dept. getting one. I remember stopping in Yankton, SD at the Gurnee Seed & Nursery Catalog. They weren’t doing any segmentation, keeping their picking slips in boxes, they didn’t even know which customers had bought more than once. I gave them some suggestions on getting those computerized and explained RFM.
So RFM is pretty ancient, but amazingly retailers and dot coms (like Gurnee) are just now finding out about it. This week, for a presentation on RFM, I searched and found more than a dozen new RFM articles within just this past 30 days.
Why is RFM so powerful and does it still matter in an age of Machine Learning and AI? I contend it does… and this website is dedicated to exploring that questions. I accidentally erased a 20-year old version of this site, so I’m rebuilding it, up to date with 2023.
Stay tuned to get the latest information. – John