Meet the Broker: Beth Stewart

Today we meet Beth Stewart, president and founder of Carlsbad, CA-based list brokerage and management firm Infocore Inc.

Before setting out on her own in 1992, she spent the five preceding years working for direct marketing firms. She was responsible for list selection, campaign analysis and served as an in-house list manager for National Pen Corp. and other mailers.

These days, Stewart estimates she spends about half her time brokering list deals. She serves as the lead broker for clients in financial services, automotive and other consumer and business-to-business markets.

Her brokerage clients include ACA Financial Guaranty Corp., Northland Biogenics Inc., XTS Global, Hope Africa, Millions by Marketing and the Archdiocese of Durban.

"I like this industry because I can use my people and analytical skills. Not everyone has a career that allows them to do both," Stewart says.

Stewart is married and keeps a pair of Labrador Retrievers at home. She also has second vocation—she owns an Arabian horse breeding business.

"The horses are a big part of my life. I travel all over the U.S. and Canada and participate in competitive shows," she says.

How reliable are disclosures for Internet data sources?

"I don't take anything at face value. I question everything," says Stewart. "The waters are a bit muddy when the comes to sources of data. Data cards just aren't clear about it."

The quality of Internet-sourced data varies greatly, whether it's a postal or e-mail file. Stewart is wary of list managers who claim compiled data and data collected through co-registration Web sites comes from "direct response" sources.

She says it's fair to describe e-mail lists generated from subscription and catalog orders as direct response files. But, she notes, disclosures for other kinds Internet-sourced data would be more useful for brokers if it were more specific.

Ideally, data cards should disclose whether list data comes from an online survey, Web site co-registration, multiple Web sites or actual direct e-mail responses. Such disclosures should include the Web site and related URLs, adds Stewart.

What's changing in the list business? And what never changes?

Stewart observes the pressure from mailers to decrease or split brokerage commissions always seems to be increasing. She sees it happening with brokers undercutting other brokers trying to get business, and some mailers treating lists as commodities without considering the value of the advice brokers provide.

More recently she has noticed e-mail list brokerage business increasing, as postal list brokerage and mailing volume in markets such as financial services declines.

Stewart has doubts that the hodgepodge non-standardized systems used for electronic data transfer data in the list business will ever change. She says that inconsistent practices and non-compatible systems remain cumbersome for the list managers, list brokers, service bureaus and those who use lists.

"There have been committees and industry task forces and large companies which have tried to resolve this problem as group. Everyone has their own platform and order entry system and doesn't want to change it," says Stewart.

"Maybe it wasn't a good idea for me to bring this up."

Know someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail Jim.Emerson@Penton.com