Meet the Broker: Diane Dubocq

Today we meet Diane Dubocq, director of list media at MetaResponse Group in Deerfield Beach, FL, where she’s worked for the past four years.

She came into the list brokerage business from Logus Manufacturing Corp. in nearby West Palm Beach, where she sold and marketed electromechanical switches and waveguide systems to major companies such as Boeing, Raytheon and Harris Corp.

Dubocq’s brokerage specialty areas include print and e-mail newsletters, business-to-business and financial/investment clients.

“Each of these mailer categories has very specific needs on both the postal and e-mail side of their media needs,” she says. “I’ll tell you, in the media business, the time really does go by fast when you are working with clients during the early planning stages of their campaigns that are typically a few months out.”

So how does she see the business going right now?

“Over my four year tenure in media brokerage, for my particular clients, I’ve seen a shift from mostly postal campaigns augmented by e-mail, to a shift in mostly e-mail, and now, a ramp up back on the postal side of things,” says Dubocq. “I will go on record for saying that my clients who have put direct mail budgets back online are doing quite well.”

Nevertheless, the overall economy has taken its toll.

“Like most of us, we were affected. We prepared by aligning ourselves with excellent copywriters who helped with our client’s messages and offers,” she says. “While mailers tightened their belts, resulting in smaller mailings, we were able to help clients stay profitable to get them through the crunch.”

There just may be some cause for optimism, she says, noting that Dow Jones Industrial Average rose from a low of 6,600 last March to more than 10,000 now.

“I’m overall positive about what’s going to happen in 2010,” she says. “With some mailers, their response has been ‘call me after the new year,’ so perhaps a fresh year on everyone’s calendar will also prompt some budgets to come back online — we’ll have to see.”

But she feels it’s incumbent on direct marketers to make things happen themselves.

“Bottom line is that direct marketers need to market — e-mail, direct mail, and even mobile marketing to stimulate business,” she says.

Off the job, Dubocq likes outdoor activities available in south Florida like going to the beach and pool and running.

“I am also about to be a new homeowner so decorating will be top of my list,” she says.