Head of the week: "Direct marketing consultancies in other industries appealed to me".
Edi Häusler moves from Basler Mediengruppe to Grey Direct Concept in Baden as a consultant on March 1
Edi Häusler moves from the Basler Mediengruppe to Grey Direct Concept in Baden as a consultant on March 1 / Edi Häusler has been responsible for the business magazine Bilanz at Jean Frey AG as Managing Director of WM Wirtschaftsmedien AG for 13 months. He handed over this task to his successor Elke Zappe at the end of 2000, as he should have taken over the Customer Service division for the titles of the Basler Mediengruppe (BMG).
Should have. Häusler didn't even take on the job and moved from Frey to Grey, the direct marketing agency Grey Direct Concept in Baden, on March 1. Häusler will become a consultant and member of the management team there. At BMG, the planned Customer Service Center will continue to be managed by Beobachter Publishing Director Peter Kümmerli and now also by Yvonne Brack.
What led to Häusler's surprising move? As a direct marketing specialist who has been teaching at the Sawi and Media Institute for years, Häusler has recently been increasingly asked whether he would also advise other companies. "That started to appeal to me," he admits. After many years in direct marketing, he sees an opportunity to broaden his horizons: At Grey Direct, he will also be advising banks, insurance companies and mail order firms.
Customer relationship management (CRM) "will become much more important in companies," says Häusler. "The customer should go from being a distant 'client' to a trusted 'customer' and ultimately a 'fan'." Häusler is therefore interested in all forms of customer loyalty systems.
Originally, the business economist HWV started as Controller Publishing at Ringier. After detours to Meisterverlag in Munich and Yves Rocher, he returned to Ringier in 1987 as Head of Marketing Magazines. In 1998, he became Managing Director of Silva Verlag, which was sold to the media giant Bertelsmann in 1999.
But it was at Silva that the idea of intensively cultivating customer relationships really caught him. The customer loyalty system using Silva points, a kind of Cumulus programme from the 1950s, "really worked for decades, but then fell behind because it wasn't modernized," he says.
For Häusler, "happily married" and father of two small children, his family is like an island. "It gives me a lot," he says. In his free time he
Cycles, jogs, swims and skis. He has been collecting wristwatches with so-called complications (stopwatch, moon phases, etc.) since he was about 14 years old. His collection now comprises 321 pieces. "What fascinates me about the mechanical watch is its proximity to a perpetual motion machine: the fact that you can keep it moving with the momentum of your own body," he says.
Markus Knöpfli
Should have. Häusler didn't even take on the job and moved from Frey to Grey, the direct marketing agency Grey Direct Concept in Baden, on March 1. Häusler will become a consultant and member of the management team there. At BMG, the planned Customer Service Center will continue to be managed by Beobachter Publishing Director Peter Kümmerli and now also by Yvonne Brack.
What led to Häusler's surprising move? As a direct marketing specialist who has been teaching at the Sawi and Media Institute for years, Häusler has recently been increasingly asked whether he would also advise other companies. "That started to appeal to me," he admits. After many years in direct marketing, he sees an opportunity to broaden his horizons: At Grey Direct, he will also be advising banks, insurance companies and mail order firms.
Customer relationship management (CRM) "will become much more important in companies," says Häusler. "The customer should go from being a distant 'client' to a trusted 'customer' and ultimately a 'fan'." Häusler is therefore interested in all forms of customer loyalty systems.
Originally, the business economist HWV started as Controller Publishing at Ringier. After detours to Meisterverlag in Munich and Yves Rocher, he returned to Ringier in 1987 as Head of Marketing Magazines. In 1998, he became Managing Director of Silva Verlag, which was sold to the media giant Bertelsmann in 1999.
But it was at Silva that the idea of intensively cultivating customer relationships really caught him. The customer loyalty system using Silva points, a kind of Cumulus programme from the 1950s, "really worked for decades, but then fell behind because it wasn't modernized," he says.
For Häusler, "happily married" and father of two small children, his family is like an island. "It gives me a lot," he says. In his free time he
Cycles, jogs, swims and skis. He has been collecting wristwatches with so-called complications (stopwatch, moon phases, etc.) since he was about 14 years old. His collection now comprises 321 pieces. "What fascinates me about the mechanical watch is its proximity to a perpetual motion machine: the fact that you can keep it moving with the momentum of your own body," he says.
Markus Knöpfli
