The Cobalt Group, a provider of e-business products and services to the automotive industry, announced Nov. 8 that Mike Martinez, vice president of marketing, will be a featured speaker at the CRM Automotive Conference in Berlin, Germany, on Nov. 20, 2001.

Martinez, who is responsible for Cobalt's product strategy and marketing communications, will discuss strategies for using technology to build and leverage profitable customer relationships.

Martinez joins automotive industry experts at this international conference that is designed to help the automotive industry capitalize on the customer relationship and maximize the customer experience throughout the retail network. Martinez is a CRM industry expert, having spent several years at Lucent Technologies as the general manager of marketing for Lucent's eCRM and e-business software division.

Martinez will discuss strategies for utilizing technology to decrease the cost of acquiring new customers, build customer loyalty, increase profits and market share, and maximize the lifetime value of existing customers.

"Cobalt has long believed that CRM is the single most important benefit that the Internet brings to the automotive industry," Martinez said. "eCRM provides a powerful and cost-effective way for dealers and manufacturers to rapidly and efficiently implement one-to-one marketing and loyalty programs that target the most profitable customers, thus saving auto marketers millions of dollars annually."

Cobalt is a provider of eCRM products to automotive retailers in the U.S.

Cobalt's flagship eCRM tool, Cobalt Lead Manager, allows auto dealers to manage all communications with customers and prospects through a single Web-based application.

Cobalt myCarTools provides automotive ownership pages to dealership customers and enables ongoing communications throughout the customer lifecycle.

In January 2002, Cobalt will launch a new suite of eCRM products that designed to provide integrated online and offline conquest and loyalty marketing, showroom control functionality, consumer personalization through manufacturer and dealer editable owners pages, and online promotion planning.

About the CRM Automotive Conference

The CRM Automotive Conference will be held Nov. 19-20 at Hotel Inter-Continental in Berlin, Germany. The conference is organized by European Networking Group.

For more information about the conference or to register, visit www.eng-nl.com.

About The Cobalt Group

The Cobalt Group™, headquartered in Seattle, is a provider of e-business products and services designed to help automotive dealers and manufacturers manage their businesses online.

Cobalt's suite of e-business solutions includes Web services, Web site hosting, e-commerce applications, Internet-based customer relationship management applications, data management, and best practices training and consulting.

Nearly half of the nation's auto dealers use Cobalt's technology, including 8,900 Web services clients, and approximately 8,700 PartsVoice® (www.partsvoice.com) clients.

Cobalt's e-business products and services are endorsed by 14 automotive manufacturers and more than 50 of the 100 largest dealer groups in the United States. Cobalt is the only e-business provider endorsed by the National Automobile Dealers Associationm (NADA).

Cobalt operates MotorPlace.com™ (www.MotorPlace.com), an online business management and industry information resource for auto dealers. At MotorPlace.com, dealers utilize Cobalt tools to manage their Web sites, buy wholesale used vehicles through MotorPlace Auto Exchange, locate and market OEM parts through PartsVoice, purchase leads through Pick-or-Pass, and access industry information, news, events, and stock quotes.

Cobalt also operates DealerNet® (www.dealernet.com), a consumer automotive information portal.

IntegraLink Corp., a Cobalt company, is a provider of automotive data collection and reporting services.

Cobalt has offices in Seattle, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Detroit, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; and Austin, Texas.

For more information, visit www.cobaltgroup.com or call (800) 909-8244.