Jay Bigelow, MicroMass Communications

Relationship marketing can be a platform for doing lots of different things. It can be your platform for messaging to multiple constituents. So you can have a relationship with physicians, with the allied healthcare professionals in the office, with the consumers, even with managed care. And if you're smart, you can weave those together into a more cohesive plan. You can do integrated marketing communications via relationship marketing because it has so many abilities and different touch points. You can do online, off-line, call center, direct selling, whatever. So you can really have a more holistic view of your customer and your communication strategy. It's a springboard for the whole promise of Web 2.0 and the communities and advocates. Relationship marketing is perfectly suited to trying to build that kind of stuff—consumer-directed content.

From the brand side, closed-loop marketing is making an investment in a marketing strategy: You have a measurement plan designed from the beginning that tells you what kind of return on investment you are getting from them. If you're the customer, closed-loop marketing is when you tell a brand or a company something you want. They respond to you in a positive way to deliver what you are asking for. In turn, that embeds you further in that brand, or into that company, because now you feel that's a brand, or a company, that's listening to you. So a big theme we use is creating dialogues. And dialogues are a two-way proposition. They're not just the brand shoving more messages out the door; it's the brand delivering the information the customers ask for, in a way they've asked for. And then asking them for some information back, so they can further refine the relationship and deliver even more value the next time around.

The Skinny

MicroMass employs innovative relationship marketing approaches. They use insights into customer behavior to create relevant dialogue, deliver an emotional connection, and start a relationship.

Telephone: 919-851-3182

E-mail: mmc.info@micromass.com

Web site: micromass.com