Today, we meet Gwen Coryell, director of list management at Kroll Direct Marketing. She keeps her hand in the brokerage side of the business, where she started nearly 25 years ago at American List Counsel. Like everybody in the business now, she sees a fixed number of brokers doing everything they can to chase down a dwindling number of mailers.
"I think the thing that's interesting now is how many list owners are willing to make more aggressive deals than they would at any time before," she says, pointing to such things as discounts and net name arrangements as examples.
"There was a time a few years ago when you would ask a list manager for a discount and they'd basically come back and say 'the price of the list is the price of the list,' she notes. "Whereas now, everybody's getting a little more aggressive with the discounts they're offering. There are fewer mailers out there and these list owners realize they're going to have to entice mailers to use their lists by lowering their rates."
In addition to running Kroll's management operation, Coryell handles list brokerage for several business-to-business publications and trade shows, a position she says enables her to have a fairly holistic view of what's going on.
Coryell has worked her way up in the business, starting as a receptionist at ALC in the mid-1980s, working there with Lee Kroll [later the founder/CEO of Kroll Direct Marketing] , moving up to his assistant in brokerage there, before joining him in 1989 when he struck out n his own.
"When he left and started his own company, I was actually on maternity leave with my daughter—now 16," she says. "I started working here and never left."
In her time in the business, Coryell has seen a lot of changes, most notably in the technology.
"I remember years ago, FedEx-ing out orders," she recalls. "When you had a big campaign, you'd sit down and fill out FedEx forms and fill out your orders."
On top of that, mailers at the time were hyper-vigilant about guarding their lists, which were generally housed on large magnetic tapes.
"People would be so paranoid about their lists—you had to go through hoops to get the list," she recalls. "But now, it's like second nature—you're e-mailing lists all over the place. I find that to be the biggest change.
"People have become so relaxed about technology –people are willing to send their lists out by e-mail whereas years ago, you had to sign a million different agreements to get a disc."
Looking ahead, Coryell sees an explosion in direct marketing through text messaging.
"A lot of mailers haven't started it but I think that's where things are going to be headed --advertising on the cell phones," she says.
Of course, this too, may depend what happens with the economy. She says she's keeping her fingers crossed in hopes things improve in light of all the grim news that keeps occurring.
"If people would just turn off their TVs and go out and do some shopping it would get better," she says.
When not brokering and managing lists, Coryell stays busy with her teenage children from her home in Ewing, NJ, near Princeton.
