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Sravanthi Challapalli

This unit will focus on the South and Mumbai markets initially.

CHENNAI, Nov. 22

THE Rs 750-crore advertising conglomerate, Mudra Communications, has set up a direct marketing (DM) and customer relationship management (CRM) division to provide marketers the competence to target specific customer segments and build lasting and profitable relationships with them.

Called One-to-One Marketing Communications, this three-month-old division is in negotiations with Rapp Collins Worldwide (RCW), a DM major which has been eyeing opportunities to set up base in India. RCW, with capitalised billings of $2.4 billion, is part of the Omnicom group and so is Mudra, through its affiliation with DDB Needham.

One-to-One will focus on identification, acquisition and profiling of profitable customers. It is positioned as a specialist DM company concentrating on high-yielding database marketing and communications solutions. Mr Mathew Anthony, who has over 15 years' experience in DM, will head this arm as General Manager. This unit will operate as a profit centre within the Mudra Strategy Group and will focus on the South and Mumbai markets initially.

Mr Anthony told Business Line that One-to-One would initially cater to existing Mudra clients who want to develop CRM programmes. This is in keeping with Mudra's aim to offer end-to-end marketing services to its clients, such as its recently-launched Brand Therapist, which focuses on the pharmaceuticals sector. Mudra already works with Asianet Satellite Communication and Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram for customer loyalty programmes, he said.

"Our new customer acquisition is focused on marketers who are beginning to feel the need to develop strong brand-consumer relationship with their `profitable customers'. This attitude to customer management comes from the revelation across businesses that 80 per cent of the profits comes from (roughly) 20 per cent of the customers," said Mr Anthony. According to him, identifying this 20 per cent and bonding with them within the constraints of the marketing budget "is a science in itself". Though he declined to mention details, he added that most of the projects One-to-One has on hand were focused on this facet of the DM business.

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