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Customers as Assets “Intangible assets are hard to see and even harder to fix a precise value for. But a widening consensus is growing that the importance of (intangible) assets – from brand names and customer lists … – means that investors need to know more about them. A task force appointed by SEC will encourage companies to provide more information regarding those assets.” - New York Times, May 22, 2001
Valuing High Growth Businesses • Traditional finance approach • DCF • P/E ratio • The Wall Street approach • Henry Blodget (1999) • Desmet et al. (2000) • Accounting approach • Trueman, Wong and Zhang (2001) • Demers and Lev (2001) • Our approach
Customer Lifetime Value • Lifetime value of a customer • Lifetime value with constant margins Margin Multiple
Model Time 0 n0 1 n0r n1 2 n0r2 n1r n2 3 n0r3 n1r2 n2r n3 4 n0r4 n1r3 n2r2 n3r n4 . . . .. .
Value of Customer Base • In discrete time • In continuous time
Data Source: Annual Reports, 10K and 10Q Statements
Modeling Number of Customers • Cumulative number of customers • Number of customers acquired
Parameter Estimatesfor Number of Customers (millions) Peak of customer acquisition = -/ or 15-20 quarters
Changes in Value over Time Market Value Customer Value
Managing Customer ValueImpact of Acquisition Cost, Margin and Retention Rate Base Case: 70% customer retention
Value of Marketing and Finance ActionsImpact of Retention Rate and Discount Rate Customer Value Of Amazon ($b)
Conclusions • Measuring intangible assets – customers • Customer value as a proxy for firm value • Increase in customer value for a 10% improvement in • Acquisition cost = 1% • Margins = 11% • Retention = 30% • Discount Rate = 3%