Q. You recently changed your name
from Wiken Promotion and Advertising
to Wiken International: A Relationship
Marketing Agency. What's behind the
new identity?
A. Two things. First is simple
geography. With our European
expansion, we felt it was time for
our name to reflect our international
presence.
The second reason is a matter of positioning.
While promotion is still the basis of
our business, the context has broadened.
The world doesn't stay the same, and
as the market is changing, we're changing
with it. If you
can't do that, you can't compete. So
part of it is understanding markets
differently, and responding to the way
people, both our clients and their customers,
think today — and more importantly,
tomorrow.
Q. Why is Wiken a relationship
marketing agency?
A. Because in our experience,
it works. Today, markets are fragmented
and customers are ever more sophisticated.
Relationship Marketing
— recognizing and addressing
individual customer concerns and needs
- is the new context for promotion and
advertising. It cuts to the chase and
puts the customer back on top.
We've actually been a relationship
marketing agency for years. But where
in the past we used service bureaus
for data processing, we've reengineered
ourselves over the last four years to
bring all the pieces in-house. And that
end-to-end capability is what makes
us unique. Our Strategic
Consulting team helps clients determine
which programs would be most advantageous and how they'll work in the real world.
Our IN Marketing
staff develops the proprietary software
that is integral to the operation of
a relationship marketing program and
yields tremendous insight into customers'
beliefs, behaviors and preferences through
data mining and other analytical applications.
Then our creative teams put a face on
the strategy and craft a message that
has personal relevance to the market.
That's mass individualization in action.
Q. How do you distinguish Wiken
International from other agencies?
A. We take relationship marketing
very seriously. It's not a buzzword
or side-line to us, but the core of
our business. Some people have the idea
that relationship marketing is one small
part of the picture, like a frequent
flyer type of loyalty program; we see
it as the big picture. Relationship
marketing is not just frequency; it's
not just loyalty. It's about stepping
back and looking at customers as a lifetime
asset; it's about building relationships
with them that endure and grow more
profitable over time. The fact is, relationship
marketing is the only discipline that
allows a marketer to strengthen all
areas of customer involvement with a
product or service — branding,
bonding and behavior — systematically.
The integration of our clients' total
marketing efforts under the overall
umbrella of relationship marketing is
very powerful, and very important to
their long-term success.
Another way we differentiate ourselves
is by staying objective. We're in the
business of helping clients solve problems
with unique and original strategies.
And we're not afraid to challenge assumptions.
It's all about knowledge - acquiring
new customers based on modeling or profiling,
retaining customers based on dialog
with them, bringing them back by learning
why they left, or doing any of that
more cost-effectively. The knowledge
we can bring to the table is what lets
us maintain objectivity, and better
serve our clients.
Like all perspectives, ours continues
to evolve — so consider this page
a work in progress, and look for new ideas
and new voices here on a regular basis.
