Home goods retailer Plow & Hearth has named SolutionSet its partner for database and e-mail marketing, as well as catalog distribution.
SolutionSet won the business in late July after a four-month competitive review. Plow & Hearth declined to name the other agencies that pitched for the account.
“We went with SolutionSet because the agency represents the best of both the larger and smaller boutique agencies that pitched,” said Jennifer Kwiatkowski, director of catalog circulation and analytics at Plow & Hearth. “We found they were led by experienced direct marketing veterans who had a solid team behind them.”
SolutionSet’s first e-mail marketing initiative for Plow & Hearth is set to begin in early 2011. However, the agency began organizing the retailer’s database when the relationship began.
Plow & Hearth handles creative in-house and uses SolutionSet’s e-mail technology on a self-serve basis. Database duties were previously handled-in house, and Kwiatkowski declined to name the service provider who previously handled merge-purge and e-mail marketing.
“Our first work was a merge and purge of the database to get the infrastructure in order,” said Zain Raj, COO of SolutionSet. “Unlike a creative agency, we have to start by building the right framework and align measurement so we can carry out campaign executions and analytics.”
The two companies had no previous relationship.
