Alterian Summit survey pinpoints multi-channel data utilization as marketers' greatest challenge.

More than half acknowledge important gaps between data collection and use, and 60 percent cite organizational inefficiencies.

CHICAGO -- A recent survey of marketing industry leaders attending the Alterian Annual Summit revealed their most pressing challenges on four fronts - database marketing, digital marketing, operational marketing, and customer experience marketing. More than 160 executives from nearly 60 leading brand marketers, marketing service providers, systems integrators and agencies attended the event held in August in Chicago.

Integrating channels remains the biggest hurdle.

Of the 140 survey respondents, almost 30 percent cited multi-channel data analysis as their greatest source of concern. Marketing to and tracking information across multiple channels is a key challenge. Additionally, 25 percent said their biggest hurdle was "closing the loop on campaigns by merging response and transactional data." Together these two groups, which comprise nearly 53 percent of all surveyed, feel that they have data available, but do not know what to do with it.

What's more, even though marketing has evolved, organizationally it is still extremely siloed. In 33 percent of companies, separate teams continue to execute email and direct mail campaigns independently.

"Integrating what you know about your customers, across all channels, can help to build a more human relationship with your customers as real people, not just as rational consumers. Statistically, 70% of their decision to buy is based on how we interact with them as a person, and only 30% is as a consumer," explained John McKean, executive director of Center for Information Based Competition. "The Alterian survey is validation that marketers lack the ability to use data that improves the customer experience. Companies must have a consistent dialog with customers across all business functions and marketing channels in order to maintain a competitive advantage." This is consistent with past Alterian research, which led to the development of the Alterian Marketing Services Platform, an enterprise marketing platform which enables an organization to aggregate all available data on any customer, and use that information to enrich the customer's experience.

Operational issues stand in the way of meaningful integration.

For truly customer-centric marketing to become a reality, integration must extend throughout the marketing department and beyond. When asked about their greatest overall challenge to developing more powerful relationships with consumers, 60 percent of respondents identified organizational structure and financial resources.

"We can see that marketers are facing huge executional gaps," said David Eldridge, Chief Executive Officer, Alterian. "But change has to come from the top, with a customer-focused passion that doesn't tolerate disparate processes or platforms. In a truly customer-centric culture, everyone works together toward a common goal. To do that, they need a common platform and solid partnerships from which to execute."

At the same time, leveraging consumer data can help on two fronts. Employing analytics makes marketing efforts more efficient and effective, as well as providing the proof marketers need to justify their budgets. Suresh Vittal, Forrester Research, wrote that "focus on data-driven marketing is driving widespread adoption of analytical solutions as marketers seek to improve the relevance of their messages and optimize marketing spend." ("Forecast: Global Marketing Enterprise Platforms: 2007-2013", Forrester Research, Inc., August 2007).

Attendees at this year's Alterian Annual Think Tank Summit included executives from American Express, Kaiser Permanente, Acxiom, ARGI, Boardroom, Inc., CMS, Merkle, and others. Keynote presentations featured leaders from Forrester Research, Jupiter Research, Center for Information Based Competition, DMRS Group, KXEN and The Customer Partnership. To download a complimentary copy of the survey report, please visit www.alterian.com/2007summitsurvey.

About Alterian

Alterian (LSE: ALN) helps marketers improve results through its enterprise marketing software platform and global partner community of leading marketing service providers, agencies and systems integrators.

Alterian takes marketers on a journey to become analytically led and to integrate their marketing processes, creating value for both the customer and the company. By combining database, digital, and operational marketing applications on a shared data infrastructure, the Alterian Marketing Services Platform makes it practical and cost effective for marketers to gain insight into their data, and use this to execute an integrated marketing strategy across online and offline channels.

Software alone does not enable better marketing. Alterian has cultivated a global community of over 70 marketing service providers, agencies and systems integrators such as Accenture, Acxiom, Allant Group, Carlson Marketing, Experian, Epsilon, InfoUSA, Merkle, Ogilvy One and Euro RSCG Worldwide, who deliver Alterian software alongside their own value-added services. These solutions empower market leaders like Princess Cruises, General Motors, Zurich, HSBC, Limited Too, Dell, Amnesty International and Vodafone, to drive competitive advantage through improved marketing performance and customer satisfaction.

Alterian was founded in 1997 and trades on the London Stock Exchange (ALN). With offices throughout North America and Europe, Alterian software is used in over 20 countries worldwide. For more information visit www.alterian.com.