CRM agency Merkle, which created healthcare and mobile groups this year, launched its market research practice on November 12. The Columbia, MD-based company has hired Christine Baskin to lead the division as VP of market research.
The division is a part of the company’s Quantitative Solutions Group. It is working with clients to improve their strategies by “leveraging known facts regarding consumer actions with new attitudinal insights,” David Williams, CEO of Merkle, said in a statement. The division will work across all of Merkle’s client verticals, including financial services, retail and entertainment.
Baskin previously worked as a team executive at BioVid, SVP and brand management practice leader at TNS Helathcare and SVP at Yankelovich.
“Our clients were asking questions like ‘why’ or using other sources of info to put additional context around the insights that we’re providing, so it was natural for us to say, ‘We can do this too,’” she told DMNews. “We’re intimately familiar with our customers’ customers and people they’re looking to acquire, so we want to help complete the picture of the customer.”
Merkle launched a healthcare division and a mobile marketing practice this year. The firm also acquired database marketing agency CognitiveData and agreed to incorporate Alterian‘s integrated marketing platform into its offerings this year.
