In a move intended to provide a more consistent online contact strategy with customers, Samsung has selected Merkle as its e-mail marketing agency.
Merkle will provide a wide range of services, including strategy development, creative design, e-mail data management and campaign execution and analysis. The relationship is a cross-divisional one, covering Samsung Electronics America, Samsung Electronics Canada and Samsung Telecommunications America. Previously, Samsung used several e-mail providers for these services.
“Samsung is ready to take e-mail marketing to the next level,” said Eric Kirby, SVP and GM of interactive services at Merkle. He added that Samsung is looking to expand the breadth and depth of communications in its existing permission-based e-mail marketing program.
E-mail can help Samsung, which doesn’t have a direct relationship with customers, “to both engage and deepen the relationships with customers,” Kirby said. He expects this to include using e-mail as a means to convey educational and new product information as well as to encourage customer feedback.
One of Merkle’s first priorities as Samsung’s e-mail marketing agency will be to develop a comprehensive view of customer relationships across North America. So, instead of having a siloed view of its electronics customers and a siloed view of its telecommunications customers, Samsung will be able to view customers as one entity, Kirby said.
Other initiatives include evaluating and developing new contact strategies for different customers, putting in place new communication type and taking a comprehensive look at the creative approach to e-mail communications with an eye toward bringing a higher degree of consistency to them while still enabling the different divisions to express their unique attributes.
Other divisions of Merkle have worked with Samsung in the past. This is the first time the two companies have collaborated on e-mail.
