IBM is beefing up its analytics offerings with the acquisition of San Mateo, CA based Coremetrics. Coremetrics was a sponsor of Social Media Strategies conference.

IBM said the acquisition will expand it”s business analytics capabilities by enabling organizations to use a cloud-based delivery model to gain real-time insight into consumer interactions internally and through social media networks to develop faster, more targeted marketing campaigns.

Organizations are increasingly looking for ways to optimize their marketing processes and gain deeper insights into client demands in order to drive brand loyalty by executing more personalized customer interactions.  Companies are faced with an increasingly complex set of digital outlets to interact with customers, ranging from websites and mobile applications to e-mail and social media sites.  Businesses must continuously focus on enhancing the customer brand experience and respond quickly to marketplace changes to differentiate themselves.

Results from IBM’s 2010 CEO Study showed that 88 percent of CEOs will focus on getting closer to their customers in next five years, 82 percent of CEOs want to better understand customer needs and 85 percent of CEOs require more visibility into their businesses.

Relevant business information is being generated every second on the web.  Today, 70 percent of a consumer’s first interaction with a product or service takes place online. Through Coremetrics, IBM is gaining the ability to help businesses rapidly gain intelligence into social networks and online media sources through a cloud-based delivery model and incorporate this insight into their business processes to create smarter, more effective marketing campaigns.

Coremetrics’ offerings enable more effective marketing campaigns that can provide real-time intelligence on what consumers are saying about products and services being offered to them, and allow clients to make fact-based, accurate decisions on marketing expenditures. As a result, marketing teams can gain deeper insight about their consumers and present personalized recommendations, promotions and other sales incentives across a variety of channels where the consumers interact with their brand. These channels span traditional outlets such as storefronts and catalogs and newer outlets including all forms of eCommerce and social media.

Coremetrics serves over 2,100 brands in the financial, retail, media, travel, and education categories including Bank of America, 1-800 Flowers, Office Depot, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and Seton Hall University.

Coremetrics competes with Omniture, Unica and Webtrends.