Carlson Marketing Group and Peppers & Rogers Group Join Forces.

Business Editors

MINNEAPOLIS & NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 13, 2003

Industry Leaders Come Together to Create a Unique Solution

that Combines World-class Customer Strategy with Flawless

Execution for Measurable Results

Carlson Marketing Group, a recognized leader in Relationship Marketing, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Peppers & Rogers Group, the leading authority on customer-based business strategy. Together, Carlson Marketing and Peppers & Rogers Group will help global Fortune 500 companies accelerate the development and execution of their customer-based business initiatives to grow the overall value of their customer base and drive increased business results.

Better Relationships. Better Results.

"We have built our business around the belief that if you want better results you need to build better relationships," said Jim Ryan, president and chief executive officer, Carlson Marketing Group. "In order to strengthen our capabilities and continue growing the business, we made the strategic decision to join forces with Peppers and Rogers Group. The business philosophies of our two companies are entirely complementary and our coming together will create an entity that is unique in the marketplace. By joining forces, we now provide our clients a truly integrated solution that delivers the gold standard in strategy, program design, execution and measurement all under the same roof."

Accelerating Customer-Based Initiatives

"At Peppers and Rogers Group, we have been focused on building customer-based business strategies for over a decade," said Steve Skinner, president, Peppers & Rogers Group. "At times however, we have seen our strategies lose some of their power in the translation to execution. Sometimes there's a disconnect because the vendors don't share the same vision. In many cases, our clients have been asking us to drive our strategies all the way through execution. The combination of Carlson Marketing Group and Peppers and Rogers Group will allow us to provide clients with a fully-integrated business solution where the architect and the builder are focused on the same thing - achieving bottom line results for our clients."

Two Strong Players on the Same Team

Both Peppers & Rogers Group and Carlson Marketing Group will maintain their individual identities, but will actively collaborate on solution development in their clients' best interests. Both firms will continue to be "technology agnostic," remaining flexible to working with any technology when it will drive business results for clients.

Ten years ago, founders Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., coined the phrase "one to one" to illustrate the revolutionary concept of treating customers individually to increase their value to a firm. Through their management consulting work, Peppers & Rogers Group has transformed "one to one" from a theoretical concept to a practical methodology that drives business results. With a focus on helping companies increase the value of their customer base, Peppers & Rogers Group provides strategies and tactics to gain a measurable and sustainable competitive advantage.

Carlson Marketing Group helps its clients grow the value of their customer base by creating a detailed, integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementation plan that turns customer-based strategies into results. Carlson Marketing Group has long advocated building better relationships with customers, employees and business partners as the framework for implementing one-to-one strategies.

"This is the perfect marriage," said Martha Rogers, Ph.D., founding partner, Peppers & Rogers Group. "In our work with clients across many industries and business models, we have learned that for companies to implement high-impact customer-based business initiatives, they require a clearly defined strategy that is supported by practical, measurable programs. The merger of our firms allows us to deliver on this promise."

"We believe that our relationship with Carlson Marketing will further strengthen our consulting methodology," commented Don Peppers, founding partner, Peppers & Rogers Group. "As we get more involved in the implementation, we will be able to add new learnings that will help drive additional bottom-line impact."

"In today's challenging marketplace, companies want an end-to-end solution for the creation and implementation of their customer-centric strategies. They want to see results and they want one entity to be responsible for creating and delivering them," concluded Ryan. "The union of Carlson Marketing and Peppers and Rogers Group emphasizes our commitment to making a difference for our clients, their customers, employees, partners and ultimately, their bottom line."

Peppers & Rogers Group has more than 100 employees and will continue to operate under its own name, as part of Carlson Marketing Group, out of its headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut. It also will continue to stimulate the marketplace with independent thought leadership published through the company's various print and on-line publications and speaking programs.