Merkle Thought Leaders to Speak at Engagement & Experience Expo

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), a leading customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm and the nation's largest privately-held agency, announced that Yanni Kotziagkiaouridis, vice president, insurance and wealth management analytics practice leader, and Shirli Zelcer, senior director, travel, media & entertainment analytics practice leader, will present alongside Gregory Brown, vice president of loyalty, promotion and relationship marketing, Choice Hotels at Loyalty360's Engagement & Experience Expo. Merkle is also a proud sponsor of the event which will be held October 28-30, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas.

Kotziagkiaouridis and Zelcer's session, entitled “Finding Balance between Loyalty and Value – Moving from a Zero Sum Game to a Win-Win,” will take place on Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 9:30am. The session will compare and contrast how two distinct industries, hospitality and insurance, have traditionally put a different focus and approach around loyalty and value. How can one industry learn from the other, and is there a better way for both? The session will focus on the following questions: what is the role of loyalty in industries that have very little true differentiation across products and competitors? Can the new emerging media play a role in reinventing loyalty for those markets? Is there a new paradigm of consumer loyalty for your industry? What is the role of customer value on defining loyalty and whether value and loyalty are intertwined.

“I am excited to participate as a speaker at Engagement Expo. I look forward to interacting with colleagues from across industries and disciplines, to discuss the role that customer value has in transforming loyalty programs,” said Yanni Kotziagkiaouridis. “Aligning the drivers of customer value to create ‘personalized' loyalty programs at the individual level is one of the most difficult and rewarding challenges facing our industry today.”

About Merkle

Merkle, a customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm, is the nation's largest privately-held agency. For more than 20 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. By combining a complete range of marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines, Merkle works with clients to design, execute and evaluate connected CRM programs. With more than 1,600 employees, the privately held corporation is headquartered near Baltimore in Columbia, Maryland with additional offices in Boston; Chicago; Denver; Little Rock; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; San Francisco; Hagerstown, MD and Shanghai. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.