PALO ALTO, Calif., June 4, 2008 – The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council today announced the launch of a new thought leadership initiative, "Precision Promotion: Timely, Targeted and Trackable." The program is aimed at identifying best practices for integrating transactional print and electronic communication with promotional marketing to leverage the value and effectiveness of statement merchandising.

Sponsored by InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh specializing in on-demand personalization services. the study will explore "transpromo" marketing practices. The term "transpromo" refers to the technique of combining IT-driven, data-centric transactional printing with revenue-generating promotional marketing. By leveraging new developments in database and print technologies, companies are able to deliver highly targeted and individually relevant messages on regular statements, bills, invoices and documents.

Research shows that these documents are some of the most widely read forms of customer communication with the average recipient spending 42 seconds viewing the transactional information. The study is the latest initiative from the CMO Council's new Individualized Relationship Marketing (IRM) Center, an online knowledge repository and leadership group looking at where and how greater customer intimacy, listening and personalization can improve customer acquisition, retention, revenue and advocacy.

The "Precision Promotion" program is designed to help the CMO Council's 3,000-plus members in 52 countries develop New Routes to Revenue at a time when companies are increasingly challenged by growing economic pressures and senior management's mandate for top-line growth. The study will build on other CMO Council programs already delivering on the New Routes to Revenue theme; these include "Business Gain from How You Retain," "Driving the Bottom Line from the Front Line" and "The Power of Personalization."

"Our Power of Personalization study revealed the unquestionable value of greater individual relevancy and context in message delivery," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "One-to-one relationship building and personalized customer experience is now a reality given the ability of new technology, data sources and channels to more deeply profile, continuously engage and behaviorally target the market."

The formation of the IRM Center (www.irmcenter.org) marks a new area of study and exploration for the CMO Council, highlighting the importance of customer data analytics and customer experience. "Reaching the customer, embracing the customer, and cutting through the cluttered competitive landscape are three of the more critical issues challenging marketers today," remarked Neale-May. "IRM is the convergence of CRM and 1-to-1 marketing, the next generation of connectivity and relevance at the customer touch point. Customers are demanding direct, precise, targeted and meaningful messaging. It is up to marketing decision makers to explore the multiplicity of revenue-building strategies, sources, segments and streams that might be under-developed, untapped, overlooked and unrealized."

Neale-May pointed to the fact that Individualized Offer Delivery (IOD), through colorful statement and bill merchandising (transpromo), has been shown to be as much as 20 times more effective than traditional direct marketing and mass communications vehicles. "Delivering insights and best-practices guidance on how to best apply transpromo and IOD techniques is a central goal of Precision Promotion," he added.

Precision Promotion will include the development of a comprehensive 25-point marketing audit that examines where and how companies are optimizing customer revenue via transpromo strategies, systems and processes. A series of online and in-person member engagements, qualitative interviews, audits and dialogues will explore various revenue-building strategies, sources, segments and streams. This content will be aggregated into a comprehensive report that will be presented at the CMO Summit Elite Retreat, scheduled for Dec. 10 and 11, 2008 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"Partnering with the CMO Council means we can explore and identify the optimal approaches to IRM – a marketing method that carries extraordinary potential," said Sandra Zoratti, vice president of strategic development and transformation at InfoPrint. "The CMO Council's combination of high-level marketing insight and networking potential makes it an extremely valuable partner for InfoPrint. As a leader in digital output solutions for companies of all sizes, we are dedicated to finding an optimal way for each customer to reach an intended audience with relevant and effective content."

The "Precision Promotion" thought-leadership initiative will also include:

- Formation of a corporate and faculty expert advisory council, comprised of CMOs and senior-level marketing personnel who will offer their qualitative insights to various "Precision Promotion" materials, events and the final report

- Partnerships with affiliated marketing organizations, academic institutions, and media outlets

- The "Precision Promotion" kick-off luncheon on May 28, 2008 at the Harvard Club in New York

- An on-demand audio Webcast discussing report findings and best practices, and featuring speakers from the advisory board and the CMO Council

- Trade show and industry event presentations of the research findings