The customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm, Merkle (www.merkle.com), which is the nation’s largest privately-held agency, announces that Marc Fanelli, vice president and general manager of the company’s international solutions, Chandos Quill, vice president, international solutions, and Al Bessin, vice president, specialty retail, will speak  at the 2012 Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Conference & Exhibition, the Global Event for Real-Time Marketers. Merkle is also a proud exhibitor at the conference, which will take place October 13-18, 2012 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

Fanelli and Quill’s session, entitled “Success Stories from Top Marketers on How to Implement a Global Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Strategy,” is on Tuesday, October 16^th at 11:30 a.m. The session will be delivered in tandem with Trish Mathe, vice president, database marketing for Life Line Screening. This informative panel will discuss with the senior marketers from leading multi-national companies their global CRM strategy as well as the unique opportunities and challenges involved in marketing across countries.  Key learning points will include:

• Learn how other organizations balance centralization versus localization.
• Discover best practice marketing techniques for entering new markets.
• Take away the top 3 lessons learned from the panel’s experiences.

Bessin’s session, entitled “Leveraging Your Database: Reporting, Templates & Strategic Applications,” is on Thursday, October 18^th at 8:30 a.m. The session will focus on identifying customers, then understanding their wants and needs, and what drives their behaviors. This is the basis for successful marketing in today’s business environment. Attendees will learn important techniques, such as creating a customer balance sheet; identifying trends; and using findings to drive business transformation. Also at the conference, attendees will be able to sign up for a 1:1 session with an expert in one of 14 topics. Al Bessin is the DMA’s DATA guru and will be meeting with attendees to provide insight into their Data needs. Attendees are encouraged to sign up for these meetings through the DMA site early as they will fill up quickly.

“The DMA Conference affords Merkle the opportunity to interact with clients and industry colleagues to explore market trends and discuss prevailing ideas about CRM,” said Craig Dempster, Merkle’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “DMA2012 is not only a great occasion to showcase Merkle’s data, analytics, technology and digital marketing advancements; it’s also a chance for Merkle thought leaders to share their point of view on the vast opportunities available to marketers today. We invite attendees to attend these valuable sessions and to stop by booth number 625 for a visit, to discuss how Merkle can help with their CRM initiatives.”