LIVONIA, Mich. -- Valassis, one of the nation's leading media and marketing services companies, announced today an enhancement and user-friendly application of its customer relationship management (CRM) software, that is the most widely used software in the marketplace for high-transaction volume grocery retailers. The release of MarketEXPERT XR 6.0 by Valassis subsidiary, Valassis Relationship Marketing Systems (VRMS), has been driven by industry trends and strategic initiatives of top clients.

"We listened to what our clients had to say and incorporated their insight into our plan," said Michael Renaud, Director of Sales, Marketing and Account Management for VRMS. "As a result, we redesigned the interface to make it easier to navigate. Throughout the update process, our clients helped take this tool to the next level. Today, measurable results and a favorable return on investment are driving marketing decisions and we want to ensure that MarketEXPERT helps our clients achieve their objectives."

This robust functionality translates into 65% fewer screenshots or steps, complemented with a fresh new look, while maintaining what clients value most - the effective use of point-of-sale data to evaluate shopping behavior; define targeted programs; and distribute targeted programs to our clients' best customers. This database management system helps identify opportunities and uses of frequent shopper data so retail customers can determine their best, secondary and casual customers as a means of targeting those shoppers with relevant offers.

"As a user of VRMS' TargetEXPERT and MarketEXPERT products for the past nine years, we've evaluated the new 6.0 version and like how user-friendly it is, along with its many new features," said Pawan Sanwal, Manager, Corporate Systems and Infrastructure, Buehler Food Markets, Inc. "We plan to take advantage of several new enhancements which we anticipate will increase productivity while allowing us to provide real-time information to our customers and marketing team."

In today's increasingly competitive and challenging economic environment, loyalty programs are vital components in the development of marketing plans. Data that points to what items shoppers buy, how much they spend and how frequently they visit given retail locations is being used to build effective, targeted advertising programs. VRMS provides easy-to-use CRM software tools that can lead to increased customer retention and loyalty; incremental purchase activity of program members; and an improved return on investment.