Today we meet Katherine Benazet, vice president of list brokerage at Trinity Direct in Butler, NJ, a firm which specializes in the niche of Roman Catholic lists, a market she says is not suffering as much as some others during the current economic hard times.
At Trinity, for the past five years Benazet has been brokering nonprofit lists primarily for organizations that raise money primarily for missionary work and other causes.
Her clients include such organizations as St Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine, KNOM Radio, Native American Rights Fund, Food for the Poor and the Legionaries of Christ.
“I think one of the most important things that’s not happening in Catholic nonprofit direct mail is that people are not cutting back on acquisition-- they’re moving steadily ahead,” Benazet says. “The Catholic market doesn’t seem to be as affected as like the health [nonprofit marketing] areas and obviously the consumer market.”
Just the same, the size of donations may be a little smaller than usual right now, she notes.
As she sees it, this steadiness might be a special characteristic of religious marketing in general.
“When times are tough people will send in money and they’ll send in their prayers –they turn to God,” she says. “And when times are very good they’re very thankful for that--so it really is a very true and steady market.”
[She concedes this isn’t true 100% of the time. For example, during Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami a few years ago, donations to e Catholic causes did take a bit of a hit as donors sent money to the Red Cross., Salvation Army and other organizations that directly benefited victims].
Before Trinity, Benazet had worked at Catalyst Direct Marketing brokering lists for consumer direct marketers.
An 18-year veteran of the industry, Benazet has seen the gradual transformations take place in the industry.
“Definitely one of the big changes is in technology all around --whether it be my job, or how results are provided to us so we can do our jobs or how we can expedite things,” she says. “Remember the days with the faxes, multipart orders and magnetic tapes?”
Looking ahead, Benazet sees the Catholic market remaining the same and direct mail remaining its primary marketing vehicle, although multichannel marketing has its place.
“We are involved in e-mail marketing here at Trinity Direct both on the renewal side and on the acquisition side,” she says. “But I believe it goes on hand with the direct mail program and it won’t replace the direct mail program.”
When not brokering lists, Benazet is raising her eight-year- old son and five-year old daughter in her home in Highland Lakes, NJ.
“They keep me very very busy,” she says.
