Data: LBM expands into consumer data

by Hugh Filman, Direct Response 13-Oct-06

LBM, the business data specialist and contact centre operator, has signalled a strategic shift with a move into consumer data - and ambitious plans to become a major player in the sector.

To underline its determination to succeed in the intensely competitive
consumer data market, LBM announced the appointment of Dak
Liyanearachchi, the former global business development director at

Dunnhumby, as the board director who will oversee the move into B2C.

"We're not playing games here," said LBM marketing director Andrew
Colwell.

"We've got very big intentions. We're very ambitious, which is exactly
why we've brought someone in at board director level for this new
division.

It's a very important strategic move for LBM."

In heading the new consumer data and consulting division, Liyanearachchi
said he had an opportunity to exploit the company's existing strengths
in the B2B market - insight, analysis, predictive modelling and other
value-added data services.

"What excited me about LBM was the fact there are some very deep client
relationships and very deep capabilities that we can build on," he
said.

"I have a really good place to start in terms of talking to some of
those clients and enhancing what we've already got."

Liyanearachchi said LBM hoped to take consumer data analytics and
insight to a new level. The company intends to work closely with clients
to develop strategies and then help them to execute them properly -
something Liyanearachchi sees as a gap in the market.

The idea is to help clients make changes within their operations that
will enable them to better drive response and build ongoing
relationships with consumers. LBM will also help clients consolidate
their data and enhance their whole understanding of customers and how to
deal with them.

"Because we have so much contact with customers and consumers on a
regular basis through our contact centre, we'll be looking to use that
as a means of enriching data," Liyanearachchi noted.

He added that LBM had received some interest from companies in the
retail and financial services sectors.

The move into consumer data follows earlier announcements that LBM had
formed partnerships with Equifax and DLG.

The Equifax partnership came into effect just as Dave Webber, head of
marketing products at the consumer data specialist, moved to Transactis
to take up the newly created role of product and marketing director.

DLG has announced it is expanding its team with the appointment of
Daniel Hain as strategic partnership director. Hain was previously a
director at Abacus Direct.

Dave Watson has been appointed DLG's head of sales. Before the move, he
was sales director at Wegener DM UK.

These latest appointments follow Mark Arnold's move to DLG as business
planning director, as revealed in last month's Direct Response.