Industry Leader Don Neal Tapped by IXI Corporation as New President of Echelon Marketing Group
Thursday, 11 May 2006
Echelon Marketing Group, a division of IXI™ Corporation, announced that it has hired Don Neal as its president. Neal will direct the firm to achieve its marketplace position as the leader in providing the insight and the tools required for marketers to leverage the impact of money and consumer spending power on the purchase process.
“Echelon is the only firm that has the data, the experience, and proven results to identify and target consumers based on their actual economic value and spending power. I joined Echelon because there is an untapped opportunity to help CMOs and smart marketers within every industry to win the greatest share of their category wallet by knowing who has the latent spending power and the propensity to buy their brand,” says Neal.
“This is the next frontier in consumer insight – geo-demographic data, attitudes, and transactional behavior aren’t enough. Money matters too much to be buried in a segmentation system or inferred from surveys or models that don’t have the predictive and descriptive power that Echelon proprietary data and indexing systems provide. The fact is we have an unfair advantage over every other option available today – there isn’t a category, product, or brand that I can think of that won’t have their eyes opened and see the power of our data and insight on their results.”
“Don is a sought-after marketing and business leader. He has demonstrated experience in driving revenue, expanding market penetration, and winning high levels of customer satisfaction. His expertise, talent, and vision are a welcome addition to the Echelon team,” said Thomas E. Dailey, president and chief executive officer of IXI Corporation. “Don’s leadership will be a tremendous asset as Echelon continues to ‘push the envelope’ in creating sophisticated segmentation and targeting tools that help consumer marketers increase their targeting performance.”
Neal is an experienced senior-level marketer and business leader. He was most recently managing director and chief marketing officer for the Consumer & Commercial Practice division of Marsh, Inc., the world’s largest insurance brokerage firm.
Prior to his tenure with Marsh, Neal served as senior vice president and marketing director for Rapp Collins Worldwide, a division of the Omnicom Group. Neal led the agency’s work with notable clients including Mercedes Benz, ExxonMobil, Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers, and Reuters. He also served as managing partner and chief executive officer for Dulles, VA-based Focalpoint Marketing, Inc. and as director of marketing for The Hallmark Loyalty Group of Kansas City, MO.
Neal is an active member of several industry associations, including the American Marketing Association and the Direct Marketing Association, and is a recognized subject expert, top-rated national speaker, and trainer.
Neal’s arrival marks an important milestone for this upstart firm. According to Neal, “Time and time again, clients have demonstrated the predictive and descriptive potential of understanding the spending power and future purchase behavior of their customers. Leveraging this data may be the most important advance in consumer marketing over the last three years. Echelon is prepared to maintain our leadership in this arena and continue to blaze a path that will improve the productivity of marketing.”