Best-in-Class Companies Improve Marketing Performance Through Measurement Capabilities

38% of All Companies Surveyed Indicated That "Establishing Marketing's Value to the Organization" Is the Top Business Pressure Driving Performance Measurement Initiatives


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - November 8, 2007) - Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks company (NYSE: HHS), revealed today that Best-in-Class companies -- those performing in the top 20% of all survey respondents -- have instituted marketing performance strategies to establish marketing's value to the organization and improve management's view to marketing decisions. Moreover, 33% of all companies surveyed identify proof of results for justification of next year's marketing budget as a key driver for the adoption of new performance measurement capabilities.

According to research presented in a new report, "Measuring Marketing Performance: The BI Roadmap to Information Nirvana," Best-in-Class companies have increased their Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) at nearly twice the rate of Industry Average companies. As a whole, Best-in-Class companies have adopted and are planning to invest in technologies and services that center around improvement of customer profiling and understanding, combined with real-time analytics capabilities that enable faster response to changing market dynamics.

Best-in-Class organizations showed significant performance improvements in comparison to Industry Average and Laggard companies in several areas over the previous twelve months. Best-in-Class companies achieved:

--  9% mean increase in ROMI in the past 12 months
--  12% mean increase of new leads into the sales pipeline in the past 12
    months
--  11% mean increase of customer cross-sell / up-sell opportunities in
    the past 12 months
--  10% mean increase in customer retention rate in the past 12 months
    

"Improvement of marketing performance, and specifically the ability to pinpoint the drivers and detractors for performance, is the holy grail of marketing organizations. The ability to analyze performance across all activities and generate improved results defines the 'information nirvana' marketers are looking for. Traditionally, companies have taken a hit-or-miss or 'let's do what worked before' strategy toward developing and executing their marketing initiatives and campaigns. As the pressure to improve performance has increased and budgets have come under close scrutiny, organizations are now faced with finding new ways to make marketing activity more effective, efficient, and yield higher return," said David Hatch, Research Director of Aberdeen's Business Intelligence Practice.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: QL2, Connexion.a and SAS. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4280.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

© 2007 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Telephone: (617) 723-7890
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Contact Information: Media Contact: David Hatch, Research Director 617-854-5329 david.hatch@aberdeen.com