FCC Chief of Staff to Partner with KnowledgeBase Marketing
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KnowledgeBase Marketing, Inc. (KBM) announced today that Blair Levin, Chief of Staff under Reed Hundt at the Federal Communications Commission, will partner with the company to integrate new digital communications technologies with advanced databases and marketing strategies.

KnowledgeBase Marketing, Inc. creates marketing technologies and one-to-one communications programs for companies with large customer bases. It was formed earlier this year by the merger of three information services companies -- Customer Management Services (Chapel Hill, NC), Dynamic Marketing Services (Houston, TX), and I Rent America (Dallas, TX). Among the company's clients are long distance carriers, RBOCs, Cable TV Companies, Internet Service Providers, and Electric Utilities.

Levin will work with Tim Toben, president of the Customer Management Services division of KBM, to develop customer loyalty and retention programs that integrate analytical databases with new digital communications technology, such as addressable media. Each system will be designed for clients based on individual customer preferences, yet managed with technology that delivers communications when, where, how, and about what the customer desires, even for millions of customer records.

"KBM has broad experience in information management, segmentation and data mining, and mass customized communications. KBM also builds marketing data warehouses for clients that want to implement world class marketing programs. Bridging that technology with the new digital communications technologies, such as addressable media creates extraordinary opportunities for a new generation of information-based marketing services. It's when you take two technologies that are currently unattached and intelligently connect them - like analytical databases and the television -- that consumers get excited," said Levin.

Dr. Martha Rogers, co-author with Don Peppers of the landmark book, The One to One Future, says that "the addition of Blair Levin, a highly knowledgeable communications industry veteran adds yet another exciting dimension to the customer management strength and know-how of this powerful, leading information services organization." Rogers adds that "this will help KBM clients strengthen the link between customer information and individualized two-way dialogues that can grow a company's business through the smart implementation of one-to-one marketing principles. As the balance of power shifts from corporations to customers, more and more companies will rely on a variety of interactive media to build dialogue with their customers and on strong knowledgebase management capabilities such as those provided by KBM."

"Combining Levin's grasp of communications technology and regulatory issues, and with our existing infrastructure, we will be three to five years ahead of our competition," said Toben. "Just as the declining cost of computer storage and the advent of data mining tools in the 1980s transformed `direct marketing' into `database marketing,' digital communications technology combined with continuously refreshed analytical data warehouses will transform `database marketing' into `knowledgebased marketing' by the turn of the century."

"With knowledgebased marketing, we actively manage terabytes of data in order to treat customers individually. And, with digital communications our interactions with customers will be much closer to real time than direct mail alone. It will also be less intrusive than telemarketing alone, since the consumer will dictate at what time of the day or night the dialogue will occur. And, just as important, customers will have more control and discretion over what they receive and in what form it arrives. The cost savings to companies and consumers will be enormous."

Levin, a graduate of the Yale Law School, joined the FCC after spending more than a decade representing a number of start-up companies, particularly in the communications area. While at the FCC, Levin oversaw a number of policy initiatives, including the digital television proceedings, the implementation of the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996, and a variety of Internet related policies.

KnowledgeBase Marketing is a provider of integrated marketing solutions including strategic consulting, consumer and business information databases, computer processing, data warehousing, data mining and marketing communications. KnowledgeBase Marketing is headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with nine offices throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.