Clare Hart is going to change the direct marketing industry’s perception about Infogroup. Hart, who was named president and CEO after the company after it was purchased by private equity firm CCMP, is going to place a greater emphasis on its service offerings.
“We offer a spectrum of services ranging from research to printing, e-mail, social media and mobile,” she told Direct Newsline. If her plans come to fruition, the company’s will place a greater emphasis on its research, creative, strategic and campaign services, while continuing to offer both consumer and business leads.
Marketers might not associate Infogroup with providing marketing services. The Infogroup Interactive unit, which pulls digital marketing service competencies from the company’s Yesmail and Walter Karl divisions, is barely six months old. And while the parent company has invested heavily in market research capabilities during the past decade, its primary reputation within the direct marketing is as a list provider – and very aggressive consolidator of independent list firms.
Hart, who took her position earlier this month, is in the middle of what see characterizes as a 12-week listen-and-learn period. And one of the areas she is learning about is the value of Infogroup’s list company brands.
“Do they matter, or do [customers] just care that they have a company that can help them with their direct marketing needs?” she asked. “The branding question keeps coming up, and the branding question will be answered as we develop our strategy.”
Hart is much more definitive when she discusses how she sees the marketing landscape changing, especially among companies that have not traditionally embraced direct channels. “There is a greater requirement around much more targeted marketing,” she said. “People don’t have time to waste, and they are not interested in looking at things that aren’t relevant to them.
“The second thing is that marketers will have to be much more creative. The next generation is going to be harder to sell to.” Infogroup will absolutely continue to offer data, she said, but the company will be putting a greater emphasis on services that link that data to targeted approaches.
Hart does not yet have definitive plans regarding potential acquisitions or divestments, save for saying “Acquisition is part of the strategy.”
Hart stepped into her current role after what might be charitably described as a tumultuous time in the company’s history. Within the last two years, founder and CEO Vinod C. Gupta resigned as both CEO and chairman of the board under pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Several members of the company’s board stepped down as well. Stormy Dean, who held a number of high-level financial positions within the company, was fired.
So why would Hart, who was executive VP of Dow Jones and president of its Factiva unit before leaving the company in January, want to join Infogroup now?
In no small part, because the shifts in emphasis on data-based advertising offer a company like Infogroup an attractive marketplace, Hart said.
“Infogroup’s assets are very good,” she added. “We own the data, the data processing capabilities and sophisticated processes to help customer enrich their data.”
She also says she was heartened by the level of talent among Infogroup employees, as well as its client relationships. “In spite of the turmoil Infogroup has gone through, it has done pretty well. It weathered the 2009 recession and maintained great client relationships. Before taking the job, when I looked at the company’s clients and financials, I realized you couldn’t keep brands like Google (as clients) unless you had talented people.”
How has Infogroup fared? In 2009, its net sales amounted to $499.9 million, down from $588.7 million a year earlier. And the company recorded a net loss of $6.6 million for the year, compared with net income of $4.8 million in 2008.
But Infogroup recorded $41.6 million in restructuring costs during 2009 (as well as $54.4 million in similar costs during 2008). A healthy chunk of those costs were bound up with its early 2009 divestiture of Macro International Inc., a social research company. Infogroup’s continuing operations generated $1.8 million in net income last year, compared with a $1.4 million loss from continuing operations a year earlier.
Hart said she has been charged by parent firm CCMP to grow both top-line revenue and earnings.
CCMP’s acquisition of Infogroup resulted in the company being taken private, which means the quarter-to-quarter pressure from Wall Street won’t be a factor in directional decisions. That said, parent firm CCMP is very well represented on its new board, with four CCMP executives – Steve Murray, Kevin O’Brien, John Warner and Rich Zannino – holding spots. Zannino, who had previously worked with Hart when both were at Dow Jones, is the board’s chairman.
Also joining the board are Hart; Steve Cone, the Brierley Group’s CMO; Jarvis Hollingsworth, a partner at law firm Bracewell & Guiliani; Mike Iaccarino, president and CEO of mobile messenger; and Bob Myers, a partner at McCarthy Capital.
Infogroup’s executive team was also bolstered by several new appointments, including:
Richard Hanks, Executive VP and CFO, who was formerly chief commercial officer of Dow Jones’ Enterprise Media Group;
Marc Litvinoff, president of Infogroup’s Research Group and Opinion Research. It is Litvinoff’s second stint with the company. He had previously led its Guidleline and Find/SVP divisions of the Research Group;
Franklin Rios, president of the Enterprise Solutions Group. Rios had previously been VP and general manager of interactive sales and marketing at Vertis; and
Susie Robinson, SVP of human resources. Before joining Infogroup, Robinson was VP of human resources for Dow Jones’ Enterprise Media Group.
Hart said she had gotten to know the immediate past CEO Bill Fairfield during the transition period. They had “quite a bit of contact,” she said, adding that he had been helpful with the handoff. Founder Gupta, she indicated, she had never met.
