BARCELONA, Spain — In anticipation of pending mergers and acquisitions within the direct marketing industry, DRTV company Thane International, La Quinta, CA, will undergo tremendous changes to accommodate corporate growth and new media.
The company announced late last month at the Electronic Retailing Association’s European Conference here that it is changing its name to Thane Inc., splitting its business practices into several divisions and naming new presidents for each.
The new divisions will be Thane Direct USA, Thane International, Thane Creative Group and Thane Distribution Group. Together, they will serve direct marketers in more than 80 countries.
“Our company presently has pending a number of substantial acquisition and merger developments,” said William Hay, president/CEO of Thane Inc. “The name change and corporate restructuring [are] designed to build a corporate infrastructure to effectively accommodate this expansion.”
Thane Direct USA, with new President Andrew Tobias, will be a full-service DRTV agency, handling all the company’s U.S. direct sales. Thane International will follow the same lead outside the United States and will be headed by Amir Tuklj, president and chief operating officer.
Thane Distribution will oversee the company’s nondirect response channels of distribution, from retail sales to credit card distribution. Denise Kovacs, formerly Thane’s vice president of marketing, will be promoted to president of the new division.
All creative development for direct response television programming will be assumed by Thane Creative and its chief creative officer, Denise DuBarry Hay.
The company is following the example of many other full-service DRTV companies that are moving swiftly into new media such as the Internet and interactive television.
