A recent survey by The Economist magazine revealed that over 70% of companies polled are in the midst of re-aligning their marketing efforts. Why? To secure a competitive edge by getting closer to their customers, employees, and distribution channels.

With over 60 years experience, Carlson Marketing Group has been watching the late ‘9Os convergence of management consultants, advertising agencies and marketing services firms with great interest. ‘Advertising industry leaders are saying that they need to invent a new product: not a consulting company or an advertising agency, but something in between,’ says Lillian Murphy, Vice-President, Client Services and Business Development at Carlson. ‘Carlson fits that bill – today.’

‘The time has come for relationship marketing,’ says Steve Fraser, Director – Relationship Marketing Strategy and Design. ‘It’s everywhere you look, and it’s not going away.’

Alignment between customer and employee initiatives is critical to long-term growth. ‘That’s why your agency had better be focused on the things that really matter today: Retaining more of your high-value customers and increasing employee retention and performance,’ says Fraser.

‘British Airways association with Carlson has been very rewarding indeed,’ says Barbra Power, Business Marketing Manager, British Airways. ‘Through our cooperative relationship, we’ve been able to put a long-term strategy in place for growth and customer retention. After all, retaining your best customers is more profitable than any acquisition strategy that I’m aware of,’ says Power.

Another area where companies are looking for help is the whole issue of where customers are doing business – e-commerce, a networked globe and alliances.

‘Everywhere you look – the rules have changed. And your agency had better be on the leading edge, if not ahead, of the trends shaping marketing today,’ says Claude Dumoulin, Vice-President, Creative Director.

Relationships. Retention. Results.

The Carlson team in Canada is part of Minneapolis-based Carlson Marketing Group, the world leader in relationship marketing. Sensing the move in the market years ago, Carlson has developed a unique set of strategic tools for organizations looking to become more ‘customer intimate.’ Carlson designs and delivers relationship building strategies aimed at a client’s consumers, channels and employees – for the unique Canadian market.

Led by Robert Clarkson, Vice-President & General Manager, the Carlson team includes specialists in:

-Relationship Marketing Strategy and Design

-Creative & Production

-Direct & Database Marketing

-Information Technology

-Training and Performance Measurement

-Incentives Design & Management

-Meetings and Events

-Program Management.

Over 350 staff work on client programs in offices in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. Carlson added over 100 staff last year alone, to support continued growth.

Relationship marketing can be very guerrilla-like. ‘The best strategy is when all of a sudden all of your best customers are solidified and your competitor never knew what hit him,’ says Paul Gallant, Vice-President Marketing Operations. Carlson’s tactical designs may include loyalty rewards programs, database and direct marketing, incentive and recognition programs, training, communications and new media applications.

‘We have been working for years to align strategies to reflect all three groups – customers, channels and employees,’ says Murphy. Carlson can leverage the talents of its global knowledge base to solve virtually any client issue.

A key aspect of Carlson’s approach is measurability – what Gallant calls ‘Proof Positive’. Carlson can assist clients in improving their performance in any of the Balanced Scorecard measurements: financial, customer-related, internal process, or learning and growth.

Fraser explains: ‘The questions we ask in our engagements are simple but provocative: What customer information are you collecting, and how are you using it? What do you want to improve and how do you measure it? Are your channel partners and employees aligned with your customer strategy? At the end of those sessions, we begin working with the client to develop actionable RM strategies that will show results.’

An example of this is Carlson’s efforts in solidifying customer retention for one of TD Bank VISA brand cards. ‘Through Carlson’s Relationship Marketing Model, it became obvious where our monies and effort should be concentrated,’ says Steve Phillips, Associate Vice-President TD VISA.

A Unique Toolbox of Solutions

Globally, Carlson has developed a unique relationship marketing business strategy, including the assessment tools used to help clients chart the course to ‘customer intimacy’. Key academics have blessed Carlson’s RM discipline. And these tools work in the real world. Carlson Canada has delivered such diverse projects as:

-A comprehensive customer satisfaction measurement process for a North American auto-maker

-A web-enabled employee recognition program for a global high-tech firm

-A coalition loyalty program design for an international service firm

-A host of incentive and recognition programs for sales channels and employee audiences.

Many customers have global interests and need a clearly Canadian perspective. ‘Our job is to stand up and say, ‘That may be a great idea for the US or the UK, but in this marketplace, this is what we need to do,” Murphy points out.

In Canada, Carlson is set to release the findings of the first Canadian Carlson Loyalty Monitor(c), a proprietary study of consumer attitudes towards loyalty programs. Preliminary findings indicate that consumers understand that they are obtaining program rewards in return for sharing personal information. However, says Gallant, ‘Consumers are starting to get much more zealous about protecting their information, so marketers are going to have to re-think the way that they’re going about developing these relationships.’

Carlson has also partnered with the Gallup organization to discover the common causes of employee defection and poor productivity. ‘If you churn through staff and continually lose their knowledge to competitors, your customer retention efforts will suffer. McKinsey and Co. calls this ‘The War for Talent’. Carlson has specialists in the design of employee programs on staff, something not many agencies have in place,’ says Murphy.

‘Relationship marketing drives our strategic creative and it’s what helps our clients to maintain their competitive edge,’ says Dumoulin.

Fraser returns to the issue of the consultants and agencies, ‘Advertising Age identifies four major trends in the marketing industry going into the next century: Customer retention is the new agency mantra; employee marketing is entering the mainstream; consultants, agencies and marketing services will align and merge; and only premier brands will thrive. Carlson operates at the convergence of these four trends – try finding them in one shop, under one brand, anywhere else.’

Carlson Marketing Group Canada Ltd.

3300 Bloor Street West, Centre Tower, 14th Floor

Toronto, Ontario

M8X 2Y2

Tel: 416 236.8370

Fax: 416 207.2971

e-mail: rclarkson@carlsoncanada.com

Web: www.carlsonmarketing.com

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