Essentials of Customer Dominant Logic

Customer-dominant logic (CDL) has been introduced by Nordic School scholars as a novel perspective on marketing and business (Heinonen et al., 2010; Heinonen, Strandvik and Voima, 2013). This perspective is grounded in understanding customers’ logic and how companies’ offerings become embedded in customers’ life/business. The term ‘dominant’ refers to having a dominant role in the company. This chapter outlines the essentials of CDL
that differentiate it from other marketing perspectives. The focus of the chapter is explaining key aspects of the customer-dominant logic approach and how managers can benefit from applying it. This insight is important because CDL provides a fresh perspective on how to successfully conduct business in dynamic market environments where customers are increasingly powerful. CDL is highly applicable to today’s business challenges, which are centered on what companies can profitably offer that customers are willing to buy.