Minneapolis, MN - September 22, 2004 - ShopCloseBuy.com provides businesses with e-mail loyalty programs and marketing services that facilitate end-user customer acquisition, promote customer retention, and enhance brand awareness. The B2C company also publishes e-mail neighborhood newsletters featuring promotional offers for people who live, work and shop in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Twin Cities suburbs.
The McKay Strategy Group is a marketing firm that provides strategic clarity and planning as well as business, marketing and technology solutions for growing companies. It recently opened a headquarters office in Minneapolis in addition to its Boston site.
A Perfect Synthesis of Strategy and Implementation
"I am truly pleased to have Mike Peterson, President of ShopCloseBuy.com, as a partner to drive our own growth and help our clients succeed," said John McKay, Founder of The McKay Strategy Group. "This is a meaningful step to providing our clients with even more effective strategic solutions. We've added a lot of Internet marketing and sales management firepower to our company today and I am excited about our growth opportunities here in Minneapolis."
"We both thought it was worth exploring the idea of being more than just strategic partners", commented Peterson. "We saw an opportunity to take our customer identification, acquisition and retention offerings to a whole new level". McKay's Strategic Application of Technology practice area, for example, now features a complete line of services including e- marketing and e-branding, web site development and revenue generation, Intranet strategies and search engine optimization.
The McKay Strategy Group uses a proprietary methodology called the SMART Process - Strategic Messaging Attracts Responsive Targets. Designed to help clients of all sizes choose the best way to differentiate themselves from competitors, SMART enables them to determine which customers and markets to best serve; what products and services to offer; what kinds of value to create, and how to deliver these values at a profit.
"John's process was something that we didn't offer; I have never seen anything like it," Peterson added. "This approach of helping companies determine what will work before embarking on any implementation was a part of the marketing equation that most companies need and largely ignore. His SMART Process can make a tremendous impact on a client's business. The projects we're doing together now are really a perfect synthesis of strategy and implementation."
Other practice areas for The McKay Strategy Group include media strategy and press placements; brand strategy and marketing communications implementations; and organizational development/internal brand alignment.