Today we meet Herb Torgersen, president of Direct Innovations Inc., a three-person firm in Suwannee, GA, near Atlanta. A nearly 29-year industry veteran, he now sees a lot of growth potential among such non-traditional direct marketers as pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods companies.
“The industry is not what it was even five years ago and there are a lot of challenges ahead,” he says. “You’ve got your traditional catalogers and publishers—their mail quantities are going down.
“I look for growth areas and I’ve found a few: retail companies, consumer packaged goods companies, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations—they’re finally embracing direct marketing.”
Even though pharmaceutical companies are still spending money on direct response space and television, Torgersen sees more going into direct mail simply because there are a greater number of consumer databases available that are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which name sufferers of specific conditions.
“If you do a TV or space campaign for people with asthma you’re not going to reach everybody,” he says. “But if you do direct mail, you know every message is going out to somebody that does suffer from asthma.”
Torgersen started his company last September. Before that, he was president of Direct Partners Solutions and previously was a senior vice president at Response Media.
During his career in the industry, Torgersen has seen the nature of brokering change.
“I’m not just a broker anymore. I’m a direct marketing consultant,” he says. “You’ve got to give consultative services and strategic thinking and strategic planning. We’re not just processing orders anymore. Years ago, you just sent out your data cards and if you got your data card there first, you got your test order.”
Unlike many observers these days, Torgersen thinks the economic slump may end as soon as the end of the third quarter of this year and points to an uptick an uptick in test orders at his firm as an early indicator.
When not brokering lists Torgersen likes to take his boat out onto Lake Lanier in Georgia, which he says is the largest man-made lake in the country.
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