Rewind: Is the List Industry Dead?
Talk about duck-and-cover. I went on medical leave for a month just as the question “Is the list industry dead?” appeared on the front cover of the December 2007 issue of Multichannel Merchant.
Well, a year later, is the list industry dead? Is it still serving the needs of multichannel merchants? Or are list firms still staving off extinction?
What we were told last year was many list firms were morphing into full-service consultancies. Some firms added modeling service, others embraced the Internet. But the general consensus was they weren’t keeping up with the times.
Merchants were still using list firms for management purposes, but were leaning towards the co-ops to get prospects. InfoGroup was still swallowing up list firms as of this past summer (before Vin Gupta was dethroned as part of an SEC agreement). And now we’re even seeing consolidation among the consultancies, as Marketsmith joined forces with Lett Direct.
A year later, where are we? Merchants, do you feel the brokerages are still relevant to your businesses? List firms, are you working to become everything to everyone?
Please, enlighten me with your thoughts.
