Today we meet Linda West, vice president of multichannel marketing at Catalyst Direct Marketing in Dublin, NH.
For most of the past 15 years, she worked at the Millard Group (now Direct Media Millard), the last two years as vice president of brokerage. Before joining Catalyst in April 2009, she worked briefly at Home Bistro, the food delivery catalog that suspended operations in April after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
She specializes in brokering the files of such catalogs as HomeTrends, Picket Fence, Sleep Solutions, Cuddledown and others.
Like most brokers, she feels the effects of both changing business conditions and the economy.
“It’s really a tough market because people are cutting back on direct mail circulation either because they’re just not mailing as much or because they’re moving their budget over to other ways of marketing including online,” she says. “So in traditional brokerage it’s harder and the file sizes are shrinking because a lot of people have cut back so it’s hard to find unique names.”
West doesn’t see direct mail or catalogs fading out anytime soon but she cautions marketers to take a broader view of marketing.
“I don’t think direct mail is gonna go away. I just think that people and companies have to be more integrated with what they are doing,” she says. “So if they’re mailing a catalog we need to make sure we know what doing with online marketing, taking more of a holistic approach and really looking at the big picture.
“And I think direct mail has a very big value because it’s definitely a way to stand out from your competitor where there’s so much online,” she continues. “Hit Google and you can find so many things but you can lose some of your identity if you don’t put your catalog or direct mail piece in the forefront. “Some people still want to get a catalog,” she says. “They want to order online but they want to catalog to look through.”
Of course the overall state of the economy is still affecting business.
“I think a lot of folks have been under plan in their sales,” she says. “I think during the holiday some people did pick up which is really good.”
But she’s taking a wait-and-see approach.
“I mean there are still a lot of people out of work and there’s a big issue with the mortgage crisis, so people I still think still going to be really careful in their purchases,” she says. “I hope we’re starting to come out of it but unless the jobs and the mortgage situation change I’m just not sure.”
Going forward, she sees social media as a potential new marketing medium even though it’s in its infancy.
“I do feel that social media is a very big part in marketing because it’s very viral,” she says. “I guess the way I feel about is that if you go online and you want to purchase something and you can see what other people are talking about, it makes you more secure in your purchase and you’re able to get more of a trust and marketers are really able to communicate with their customers.”
She adds that at the very least, social media can help build traffic.
When not brokering lists, West, who lives in Dublin, NH, is an avid fan of Boston Red Sox, Bruins and New England Patriots and also likes to garden and go camping with her family.
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