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Pleasant Company, a Division of Mattel, Selects Xchange for Customer
Relationship Management
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Creators of American Girl(R) books and dolls to
use personalized marketing to increase profitability of customer
relationships
BOSTON, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Xchange(TM) Inc. (Nasdaq: EXAP) announced today that Pleasant Company, creators of the American Girl® brand and a division of Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) has purchased Xchange software and services in order to enhance its ability to market its wares direct to consumers via the Internet, call center, and catalog. Pleasant Company's goals for the program -- a top strategic initiative -- are to build strong relationships directly with consumers and then drive more profitability from those relationships via highly targeted and relevant direct marketing campaigns. One particularly large opportunity for Pleasant Company is cross-selling and up-selling its multiple product brands, including American Girl, Bitty Baby®, Angelina Ballerina®, and AG Mini's(TM) via the Internet as well as traditional direct mail channels. According to Jim L'Heureux, director of database marketing for Pleasant Company,`The company chose Xchange after conducting a lot of hands on research and speaking with many industry experts. Their products are a great fit with our current needs and, as we continue to grow, we feel confident their expanding suite of products will allow us to integrate easily with complementary solutions from other technology vendors.'' L'Heureux noted that Xchange's Customer Value Management(TM) approach, which helps turn customer relationships into profit, is in perfect alignment with Pleasant Company's philosophies on Customer Relationship Management.`All of Pleasant Company's direct marketing efforts must be grounded in economics, and must be measurable - otherwise there's no point in doing it,'' said L'Heureux.`Xchange understands that and incorporates those tenets right into its software. We're looking forward to working with Xchange to strengthen our direct sales and marketing channels.'' Pleasant Company has done an outstanding job of building a strong brand in the consumer goods space, and leveraging that brand to cross-sell and up- sell via multiple customer channels is a terrific business strategy,'' said Andy Frawley, CEO of Xchange, Inc. `We're very pleased to play a key role in their direct marketing initiative.'' About Pleasant Company Located in Middleton, Wisconsin, Pleasant Company was founded in 1985 by Pleasant T. Rowland, and became a division of Mattel, Inc. (NYSE: MAT - news) in 1998. The mission of Pleasant Company's core brand, American Girl, is to educate and entertain girls with high-quality products and experiences that reinforce positive social and moral values. About Xchange, Inc. Exchange Applications, Inc., now doing business as Xchange, Inc., helps companies focus their resources on customers who represent the best long-term profitability. Xchange delivers results by instilling a profit-focused discipline in the organization, coordinating all touch points and creating a personalized dialogue with the most valuable customers. These solutions are impacting the bottom line of approximately 275 companies worldwide, including Citigroup, DaimlerChrysler and Vodafone. Xchange is based in Boston with offices worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.xchange.com. Xchange is a trademark of Exchange Applications, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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