The CMO Council, an organization "dedicated to advancing the effectiveness, stature and influence of chief marketing executives faced with a unique set of complex and daunting organizational, operational, cultural and strategic business challenges across multiple industry sectors and markets worldwide" has started an initiative aimed at helping marketers understand the power of personalized communication techniques:

Power of Personalization will examine the critical link between customer data, analytics and messaging through the application of new, on-demand personalization technologies, customized content creation and digital print systems, one-to-one delivery and interaction channels, and the emergence of new applications such as “TransPromo” documents that combine transactional and promotional information.

The Power of Personalization will identify how and where personalization techniques are being successfully deployed by leading marketers – as well as how the various, inter-related components of personalized communication campaigns are being tracked and measured. Additionally, program research will address the degree to which companies are embracing (or not yet embracing) personalized communication strategies; the state-of-the-art tools and technologies available today; and the direct relationship between customized delivery of information and sales performance.

More information is available at http://www.cmocouncil.org/programs/current/power_personalization.asp.