DMI Debuts Business Mailers Alliance
Direct Media hopes that the dual appeal of transactional data and low pricing will drive clients to join its Business Mailers Alliance cooperative database.
The members-only co-op will have 2 million to 3 million names to start, but could go to 10 million.
The objective is to offer the names of multibuyers based on purchase history. Transactional variables will include product category, method of payment, source, amount spent, recency and frequency (including frequency by month).
The product will enable mailers to reactivate old customers. “You can send in your older files and match the companies that appear against current files,” said Bob Foehl, former president of DMI, who has returned to the firm on a part-time basis.
The file will be updated monthly. The price of $65 per thousand names also covers modeling. Members will have a limit on the number of times they can use the file in a given month.
There will be a standard net-name of 85%. However, “in the early going, we will be fairly cavalier so that no one gets hurt if they take 50,000 names and only end up with 20,000,” Foehl said.
This co-op was the 25th held by Direct Media, and its first since the list firm repurchased 51% of its stock from Acxiom earlier this year. In an interview, CEO Dave Florence said that the company, which now has annual revenue of around $30 million, has slightly altered the course of its online start-up, DirectMedia.com. Although a separate company, the unit – which now has Tom Marianacci as president – will be primarily owned by DMI, and it will remain firmly rooted in the direct marketing world. “We learned that you can’t separate it from the traditional side,” Florence said.
