Meet the Broker: Alexa Kimberley-Bryant

Today we meet Alexa Kimberley-Bryant, executive vice president of D-J Associates. For her, working with startups and the challenge of understanding customer psyche keeps brokerage work fresh as the day she started.

Kimberley-Bryant has been a broker with D-J Associates since 1981. She began her direct marketing career in the late 1970s working for a women’s apparel catalog writing copy and doing production work. Her responsibilities grew to include customer acquisition and thus working with lists.

“Brokerage can be creative work if you can get into the mind of the target audience,” she says.

Kimberley-Bryant specializes in the children’s market, although she has worked extensively in the environmental, home furnishings, gift and food markets too.

She primarily brokers lists used for targeting consumer catalogs and magazines, besides also managing a few files for some brokerage clients.

Kimberley-Bryant has established client relationships with Heartsong Inc., PajamaGram Co. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., Seeds of Change, Chinaberry Inc. and Pickering & Simmons Inc. owner of the Old Durham Road catalog.

“I like working with a startup or even spin-off books because it means being involved from the ground up. Unless you’re involved at that level it’s not as fun, like building your own house,” she says.

One of the most rewarding things about brokerage work is the feeling of satisfaction that comes with watching a startup grow. “It feels really good three or five years down the road,” she says.

Kimberley-Bryant and her husband, by the way, actually did build their own house, before their two sons (now adults) were born. “We did everything except dig the hole for the cellar and we hired someone to build the chimney,” she says.

Her extracurricular activities currently include downhill skiing, bicycling and walking. She also dotes on her two Golden Retrievers.

“I bring the dogs to work with me almost every day. I can’t leave them home. I started doing it about four years ago. We had other dogs before that and my husband brought them to work with him, but these are broker dogs,” she laughs.

What’s current state of the market for children’s lists?

“It peaked in the mid to late 1980s,” says Kimberley-Bryant.

In general, fewer and smaller lists are available now for targeting children’s apparel, toys, books and publications. Brokers can make up the difference through list enhancements, particularly presence of children and children’s age selects.

Children’s magazine lists are a notable exception to the shrinking list universe syndrome. “There’s still a lot of strong children’s publications that are growing,” she adds.

Purchase recency data is critical in this market because children grow up fast. Kimberley-Bryant notes it’s important to find out exactly when purchases were made. A list may indicate that someone purchased a toy for a toddler, but that “toddler” might now be old enough to be attending college.

Is there a downside to cooperative databases?

From the mailer’s perspective the co-ops offer larger list universes and reduce costs, but that’s not the whole story, says Kimberley-Bryant.

Some consumers are being hammered by offers because the targeting and statistical models are becoming so narrowly focused, at times down to the SKU product level.

Individual list owners are losing list orders as mailers access more data through the co-ops, offering data bundled from multiple list owners. Of course, brokers receive fewer commissions.

“I think they contribute to list fatigue,” she adds.

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