Merkle Introduces Market Research Practice: Christine Baskin Appointed Vice President of New Group
Columbia, Md., November 12, 2009 — Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing customer relationship marketing agencies, today announced the formation of its new Market Research Practice, which will provide new insights into client marketing programs by discovering and understanding how consumer beliefs and attitudes shape purchasing and engagement decisions. The new practice is part of Merkle’s Quantitative Solutions Group, which provides leading organizations with analytical insight and strategy to drive highly targeted and measurable marketing programs.
Hired to lead the practice in the role of vice president, market research, is Christine Baskin, an industry expert with more than two decades of experience in uncovering market research insight for top companies in sectors that include pharmaceutical and healthcare, retail and consumer packaged goods, banking, technology, restaurants and hospitality, telecommunications, and many others.
A recognized market research leader, Baskin’s experience includes senior management roles at recognized firms. Baskin joins Merkle from BioVid, a market research firm in Princeton, New Jersey, where she managed a team of research professionals providing complex quantitative knowledge for pharmaceutical and biotech clients. Earlier, Baskin held senior positions at TNS Healthcare, Yankelovich and Knowledge Networks. Baskin’s research and consulting teams have provided detailed customer insights that influenced brand positioning and management, shaped new product development and drove highly informed direct-to-consumer initiatives.
Merkle Chairman and CEO David Williams said, “Merkle’s Market Research Practice is a natural next step in the evolution of our business, and will effectively complement our existing and proven data, analytics, technology and agency services capabilities. The Market Research Practice will provide knowledge that will further enable Integrated Customer Marketing™ and help our clients optimize their strategies and business processes by leveraging known facts regarding consumer actions with new attitudinal insights. With these goals in mind, Christine Baskin was the clear choice to head our new practice, and she brings a long and successful career in the field of market research to Merkle.”
Ron Park, Merkle’s vice president, Quantitative Solutions Group, said, “At Merkle, market research is a logical extension of our core database marketing capabilities. While we have developed advanced approaches to determining and predicting actual behaviors, market research will determine why these actions are occurring. Combining observed behaviors of the consumer and the understanding of the needs and attitudes of those actions will enable us to build a more holistic view of the customer. Ultimately, this will allow marketers to better understand and optimize customer behavior.”
Christine Baskin said, “Joining Merkle to start the new Market Research Practice is an extremely exciting opportunity for both myself and for the company. At its core, market research seeks to understand how a customer’s overt behavior is influenced by his or her attitudes and beliefs, and this understanding is often the missing piece of the marketing equation for many organizations. Based on our insights, for example, we can help brand and position products for specific market segments, improve results of nonprofit fundraising campaigns, and boost customer retention rates.”
About Merkle
Merkle is one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing customer relationship marketing agencies. For more than 20 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. By combining a complete range of marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines, Merkle works with clients to design, execute and evaluate Integrated Customer Marketing™ programs. With more than 1,000 employees, the privately held corporation is headquartered near Baltimore in Columbia, Maryland with additional offices in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Little Rock, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Hagerstown, Md. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.
