Merkle Introduces Market Research Practice: Christine Baskin Appointed Vice President of New Group

Columbia, Md., November 12, 2009 — Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing customer relationship marketing agencies, today announced the formation of its new Market Research Practice, which will provide new insights into client marketing programs by discovering and understanding how consumer beliefs and attitudes shape purchasing and engagement decisions. The new practice is part of Merkle’s Quantitative Solutions Group, which provides leading organizations with analytical insight and strategy to drive highly targeted and measurable marketing programs.

Hired to lead the practice in the role of vice president, market research, is Christine Baskin, an industry expert with more than two decades of experience in uncovering market research insight for top companies in sectors that include pharmaceutical and healthcare, retail and consumer packaged goods, banking, technology, restaurants and hospitality, telecommunications, and many others.

A recognized market research leader, Baskin’s experience includes senior management roles at recognized firms. Baskin joins Merkle from BioVid, a market research firm in Princeton, New Jersey, where she managed a team of research professionals providing complex quantitative knowledge for pharmaceutical and biotech clients. Earlier, Baskin held senior positions at TNS Healthcare, Yankelovich and Knowledge Networks. Baskin’s research and consulting teams have provided detailed customer insights that influenced brand positioning and management, shaped new product development and drove highly informed direct-to-consumer initiatives.

Merkle Chairman and CEO David Williams said, “Merkle’s Market Research Practice is a natural next step in the evolution of our business, and will effectively complement our existing and proven data, analytics, technology and agency services capabilities. The Market Research Practice will provide knowledge that will further enable Integrated Customer Marketing™ and help our clients optimize their strategies and business processes by leveraging known facts regarding consumer actions with new attitudinal insights. With these goals in mind, Christine Baskin was the clear choice to head our new practice, and she brings a long and successful career in the field of market research to Merkle.”