I would like to put forth two great names for consideration for the Direct Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame. Wouldn’t it be great if the DMA were to acknowledge the importance of list professionals in building the direct marketing industry?
All of direct marketing began with the list. The plain fact is that of the five factors influencing response — copy, offer, timing, package design and list — selecting the right list can produce 10 times the response as any of the other factors. Yet list professionals are way underrepresented in the DMA Hall of Fame.
1. Ed Burnett was the most knowledgeable, capable DMer that I’ve ever known. Until recently, he mentored me and many others in both the science and the fine art of direct marketing.
2. Edith Roman. It would be a great testament to the DMA to give proper credit to the women who have built this industry: Rose Harper (Kleid), Florence Woolf and Edith Roman.
Of them all, Edith was the greatest. Edith was a DM pioneer in the strictest sense of the word, and her dedication to this industry has stood the test of time. She taught us many things. She continues to be humble, ready to help, elegant, disciplined, thoughtful, sharp, soothing, reasonable, practical, sensible and always experienced.
She helped her clients and her associates understand the great opportunities that direct marketing presents. It is a true testament to her greatness that Edith Roman’s name and business continue to shine more than 50 years later. In fact, of all these great women who have served this industry, Edith Roman is the only woman to have built a company that remains, a company that today stands as the largest BTB postal and e-mail list company in the world.
Our kindest wishes to our friends at DM News for the very best in 2005!
Stevan Roberts, CEO, Edith Roman Associates Inc., Pearl River, NY
Stevan Roberts is Edith Roman’s son.
