Fiona Benevento, Wunderman IM (Integrated Marketing) Director |
Ranked the #1 marketing services network in the world by
Advertising Age and consistently ranking in the Top 10 Direct and Digital agency lists, Wunderman is the ultimate expert on relationship marketing and Ford's loyalty is testament to this.
In today's marketing environment, the most important task is to ensure that customers remain loyal, yet each year marketers spend billions on acquiring new customers, giving little attention to their existing base. This emphasises their lack of understanding that happy customers grow business and that involvement can breed loyalty.
Wunderman built the business centre on the Ford site and seconded a full-time team to the account thereby establishing the relationship and becoming directly involved in the business from day one through the leadership of Fiona Benevento, Wunderman IM (Integrated Marketing) Director.
The core responsibilities of the team include amongst other duties: data management, marketing programmes, acquisition and loyalty marketing, event management, staffing, data analysis, communication strategies and acquisition and integration of new data.
Having recently implemented a customer lifetime management programme, Wunderman believes that it is possible to build a relationship with customers that last a lifetime. Benevento adds, “The initial promise is vital to relationships between people, and between brands and consumers. If you don't immerse yourself and get involved with client, your relationship is likely to remain light, uncommitted and of little long-term value to either side.”
Dawid van der Merwe, Ford Fleet Operations Manager comments, “Working with Wunderman the past ten years has enabled us to identify, grow and focus on our key customers. We continue to measure our marketing activities through a well maintained customer database, which has through the years created a positive perception of Ford in the fleet market and ensures that we always have a professional approach to our fleets.”
“Keeping people in a relationship long-term is a tough task. To succeed long-term you have to work at the relationship and never ever take the customer for granted," concludes Benevento.
