Today we meet Cate Mumford, executive vice president at Gnames Media Group Inc. in Dallas, where she's worked since 2001.
Before joining Gnames, she worked with such companies as Jobsonline and Naviant in the areas of database marketing, sales and development.
She also headed up the list management division at Walter Karl before InfoUSA acquired the firm in 1998.
Earlier in her career, Mumford worked on the client side in marketing and sales at Merrill Lynch and in database development at Home Box Office.
At Gnames she brokers lists in the areas of financial research and investment publishing—both in business-to-business and consumer.
She also brokers lists in the areas of upscale retirement communities, general merchandise, collectibles and business opportunity.
Like some others in the industry, Mumford sees the role of the list broker evolving from its original definitions.
"I think more than anything else, we now find ourselves active in roles well outside that of traditional list brokerage," she says. "We are not only active in recommending and placing orders for our client's direct mailing efforts. Today we are active in many other areas as well."
Those include direct database development and maintenance, merge/purge processing and analytical efforts as well as placing ads in digital media, coordinating client e-mail blasts, offering advice on creative development and conducting post mailing and advertising response analysis.
Mumford says offering clients these additional services is one way Gnames has helped deal with the difficult economic climate right now.
"It has been important to find more effective and cost efficient marketing opportunities for clients with budgets and mailing plans downsized," she says. "Narrow targeting mailing efforts to groups with specific affinity for a product is also increasingly important."
And it's hard to tell how long these conditions will last.
"There are just too many factors with potential for impact on the recovery. So far we've seen some improvement, only to see it retrench in many cases," she says. "If the holiday season shows some sustained return of consumer confidence though, I think we might see more improvement in the first half of next year."
When not working, Mumford likes to engage in what she terms "an active country lifestyle," which encompasses gardening food crops and flowers and raising chickens. This, she says, generally keeps her and her family very busy outside of work.
"We're often a destination for family and friends too, so there's always something cooking in the kitchen at home," she says.
