The new partnership between list marketers 21st Century Marketing and Ralph Stevens Associates LLC has borne fruit: The alliance has won three new catalog mailing lists from Starcrest Products of California Inc.
This marks the first time that these lists will be available for rental. Their arrival should calm mailers who have been concerned with the lack of prospects available on the list market.
“What’s so special about this win is the fact that these files are brand new to the direct marketing community,” said Janine Vosseler, executive vice president of 21st Century Marketing, Farmingdale, NY. “The files comprise 700,000 new mail-order buyers.
“Starcrest is an established company, and to have three new files at this stage is a great opportunity for mailers,” she said. “Marketers now have a new source of buyers who spend $50 or more on an average order.”
The first file, Gavilan’s mail-order buyers, includes 136,903 senior women who spend $45 on average per order. They are known to purchase things like kitchen and batch products, cosmetics, handbags, apparel, jewelry and home and garden products.
The Make Life Easier catalog file has 210,642 annual buyers and is geared toward individuals 55 or older, 60 percent being women. These customers bought health and household products, and their average order is $50.
Finally, Traditions offers a file of 308,641 names, 80 percent of whom are women who buy things like games, costume jewelry, CDs, books, stationery and other gifts. These people spend an average of $55 per order.
Various selects are available on each list including recency, dollar, gender and multi-buyers.
Why did the lists come up for rental?
“Starcrest chose to build up their business before they put these lists out,” Ms. Vosseler said. “It was nothing more than just a corporate decision.”
The win comes only days after 21st Century Marketing and Ralph Stevens Associates inked their non-strategic alliance to pitch complementary services to prospective mailers.
They will offer services like list management and brokerage, data processing, database management and other direct marketing tools. Support for the alliance came from the top: 21st Century boss and DM veteran David O. Schwartz and Ralph Stevens Associates founder Ralph Stevens.
“I started my own business less than a year ago — last fall,” Mr. Stevens said, “and looking around the industry, rather than reinvent the wheel, I thought it would make sense for me to align myself with the kinds of services I’d rather not recreate.”
Mr. Stevens worked at MKTG Associates as senior vice president before starting his own enterprise. He was also founder and president of list firm Stevens-Knox & Associates, which was in business from 1972 to 2001. He is now based in Boca Raton, FL.
21st Century specializes in multicultural marketing, cataloging, fundraising and business-to-business lists.
“I have my company and they have theirs,” Mr. Stevens said, “and we’ll work in unison on providing certain prospective clients with the services we both know how to provide.”
