Meet the Broker: Katherine Sharma
Today we meet Katherine Sharma, director of new business development at Acculists USA in Ventura, CA, where she’s been since the end of 2006.
Her brokerage specialty areas include finance and insurance, as well as the outdoor and vehicle markets and business-to-business catalogs for products like shelving and other industrial equipment.
She came to the list business after having been a newspaper writer and editor for the Detroit News. She later moved to California to edit several trade magazines including Pool And Spa Business and later RV Business, published by Affinity Group, an organization that offers membership clubs, subscriber-based services and publications in the recreation vehicle and outdoor markets.
This was her introduction to direct marketing.
“I started there as editor of the magazine and then moved over to the corporate side as a vice president of planning and operations,” she says.
After that, she ran a small local advertising agency in Ventura and worked for Answer Financial, an online insurance agency.
As she sees it, the list business is going through some fundamental changes.
“The list business is like every other business in the country right now that’s being affected by the recession. But I think one thing that’s really affecting it is that there are changes in the media mix,” she says, noting companies are increasingly allocating marketing dollars to e-mail, text messaging and social media.
“So reliance on direct mail-only lists is going to narrow the market for list brokers and list managers,” she says.
Of course, Acculists is moving into those areas.
“We’ve gotten a lot of interest in text messaging and social media,” she says. “”It’s still a very new medium so there’s a lot of interest but also a lot of confusion, too.”
Still, despite the growth of online media and concerns like proposed do-not-mail legislation, she doesn’t think direct mail is going to disappear.
“Direct mail will continue to have its role and its niche. And, in fact, with mailboxes less cluttered response rates may improve, depending on the offer.”
When not brokering lists, Sharma and her husband, who comes from India, like to travel, often going to visit his family in Calcutta and Delhi. They also like to go to destinations in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.
