It works like this: A consumer product company taps Merkle for a direct-to-consumer marketing campaign. Merkle helps the client build a database of potential customers and then uses statistical and regression models to predict the likelihood of those customers to buy a new product, for instance.
Williams put it this way: "We gather and track information about how consumers are behaving and use statistical techniques to predict and describe consumers so we could do more relevant marketing to those consumers."
He largely attributes the company's success and yearly revenue increases to its quantitative solutions unit. In fact, some 125 statisticians and analysts, many with graduate and doctoral degrees in math, economics and statistics, do nothing but create predictive models on understanding consumer behavior, he said. (Some of the new hiring is for this unit, since Merkle hopes to double its size.)
John Mace, associate director of annual giving at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said Merkle is helping the nonprofit group refine its year-round fundraising efforts and branch out to other channels, such as the Internet, to draw donors. The institute recently renewed its contract with Merkle for another three years, Mace said.
"Since we've been with them, we've seen a definite upturn in the quality of the giving ... and the amount of funds we've been able to raise from the audience we approach has gone up," Mace said, noting that the group is sending out fewer direct-mail items and raising more money. "We attribute that in no small part to Merkle's efforts."
When Williams bought Merkle in 1988, he was the company's 24th employee and one of its youngest at 25. Besides adding technological and analytical capabilities and services to expand its business, Merkle also acquired smaller firms, including three in the past four years.
Today, the company has employees in Hagerstown, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and Seattle.
As Merkle began evaluating its expansion plans several years ago, Williams said the company looked at locations inside and outside Maryland. The company was drawn to Howard County because of its proximity to the Baltimore region, because the cost of living is generally lower than in the Washington area, and because it has convenient access to BWI Marshall Airport.
Another big incentive was being able to own land and buildings for its new headquarters at the Columbia Gateway business park, said Williams, who has lived in Howard County for two decades.
