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I'VE READ WITH INTEREST THE exchange between Lester Wunderman and Don Peppers and Martha Rogers regarding Peppers and Rogers' latest book, “Return on Customer” (Commentary, December). I have great respect for all three of these marketing pioneers.

Mr. Wunderman's groundbreaking book “Being Direct” is a wonderful introduction to what have become some of the tried-and-true tenets of direct marketing. For this, the industry owes him a great debt.

Having recently read “Return on Customer” from cover to cover, however, I'm bewildered by Mr. Wunderman's implication that the concept of ROC isn't new. In fact, Peppers and Rogers have built on their one-to-one foundation and introduced a new approach to quantifying customer value that goes beyond advertising and direct marketing practices. Indeed, the promise of ROC is that it can change the fundamentals of how companies operate.

As we have seen with organizations as diverse as Bridgestone, Martha Stewart Omnimedia and even the National Hockey League, a single event can spark a change that means a widespread shift in lifetime value. Simply put, there are outside forces that can affect customer value. Quantifying what a customer is worth on an ongoing basis can have significant impact on the decisions executives make.

Indeed, ROC transcends marketing. It can affect decisions around capital investment, portfolio management, business valuations and acquisitions. Peppers and Rogers have introduced the idea that the customer is an identifiable asset. It's no less tangible than the value of intellectual capital and, as such, is difficult but critical to measure.

What Peppers and Rogers are saying is that ROC is not just in the mailroom, it's in the boardroom. It's not just on the customer list, it's on the balance sheet. It lives on Madison Avenue and on Wall Street. And it represents the evolution of how we should engage the customer and maintain the conversation.

Mr. Wunderman deserves our thanks for laying the groundwork. Peppers and Rogers deserve our praise for building on it — once again.

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JILL DYCHE is a partner in Baseline Consulting and author of “The CRM Handbook.”