Richardson, Texas, Sept. 30, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KBM Group, the global leader in knowledge-based marketing solutions, announces a groundbreaking initiative to offer its integrated IMPACT database solution as a customer engagement service. This is the first time a data-based marketing solution that optimizes real-time consumer engagement across multiple channels is offered "as a service." IMPACT as a customer engagement "engine" enables clients to focus on strategic business applications and outcomes, rather than on platform and infrastructure technology and processes.
Delivering the functionality and outcomes required in an interactive buying environment, KBM Group’s traditional IMPACT database solution helps B2B and B2C companies connect with their customers and prospects. It integrates and manages consumer data interactively through multiple offline and online channels in real-time, delivering true synchronized multi-channel marketing optimization. However, because competitive pressures, digital and mobile technology, and proliferating data are accelerating the pace of marketing, companies must now deploy such a high-function marketing database platform more quickly, with more scalability and customization.
A Marketing Customer Engagement Engine
In the evolving data-driven market place, marketing is also increasingly integrated with a company’s entire enterprise solution set. To meet pressing marketing and organizational challenges, IMPACT is now available quickly, without lengthy deployment and on-premises installation of hardware and software. It offers considerable flexibility for customization, tool selection and access by multiple client sites. Designed with a powerful solutions backbone that is extendible with a choice of tools, this new service is also highly scalable in functionality, marketing velocity, volume of content and activity, and number of users.
"With the general trend to services - away from hardware and software - KBM Group anticipated the need for data-based customer engagement as a service," says Dennis Kooker, president and COO of KBM Group. "Marketers need a rapidly deployed, easily scalable and customizable solution for customers who use traditional as well as digital and mobile buying channels. Our goal is to help companies bridge online and offline marketing so they’re in the forefront of interactive marketing. This is critical so that they can win and retain customers across all buying channels. To do this, they need detailed knowledge of customers and their preferences, so they can adapt their marketing strategies for optimal ROI and marketplace success. This brings competitive advantage to their entire organization."
IMPACT as a customer engagement service will significantly shorten typical implementation time-to-market. Within 30 days, clients can execute closed-loop campaign management with performance metrics and dashboards. With the IMPACT core in place, the solution can evolve based on a client’s specific needs and timeline, while they execute and optimize their marketing activities.
High Function Core with "Plug and Play" Customization
The high-function, high-performance backbone of IMPACT’s core functionality provides:
- Real-time integration of multichannel campaign and interaction management
- A comprehensive marketing data warehouse including customer data, prospect lists, model scores, customer touch points, marketing financials and other data essentials
- Rich data assets such as KBM Group’s Amerilink® consumer database
- Data enrichment processes and derived data such as campaign attribution and reverse identity append
- Data hygiene, matching and suppression services
- Media and campaign performance reporting and dashboards
"Plug and play" extensions include:
- additional functionality such as Web analytics, international hygiene and matching, search and display, and survey data
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components customized for industries such as:
- INSURANCE/HEALTH SERVICES: membership and sales geography
- RETAIL/CONSUMER GOODS: purchase transactions, products, stores.
Such modularity means clients pay for what they need when they need it and get future enhancements without lengthy development timeframes. In addition, the service can be accessed from multiple client sites easily and cost effectively.
Best-in-Class Strategic Tools
With the shift to a customer engagement service rather than fixed installations of hardware and software, customized tools and tailored capabilities better support clients’ needs in serving their markets. As an integrator of marketing solutions, KBM Group has excellent partner relationships with companies providing best-in-class products and services that provide strategic and targeted support to achieve marketing and enterprise objectives.
Tom Young, executive vice president of KBM Group’s client services, notes, "KBM Group’s data management technology is supremely flexible. We can integrate our database platform and solutions with a client’s existing ecosystem seamlessly and rapidly. IMPACT as a service helps clients tie together digital and "terrestrial" information to engage customers with optimized messaging quickly - without a large capital investment or significant development project. Our focus is on marketing and business performance, and providing flexible and scalable tools for a local marketing operation or a global enterprise."
About KBM Group
KBM Group is the global leader in knowledge-based marketing solutions. Expert in both digital and traditional direct marketing, KBM Group helps companies manage, analyze and optimize marketing data to engage more effectively with their customers and prospects. KBM Group’s integrated, world-class solutions include strategic consulting, digital services, database services, analytics, marketing management, creative, agency services, response services, data and marketing outsourcing. The company has 35 offices in 21 countries serving global, enterprise and B2B2C-focused companies. KBM Group’s parent company, Wunderman, is part of Young & Rubicam Brands and a member of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY). www.kbmg.com.