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In addition, the company’s systems, with inexpensive and highly secure Web-based connectivity, boast better, more dynamic error-handling and faster batch transmission, which means lower data transmission fees, reduced error rates, and lower operational costs than those of other payment processors.
A Tradition of Innovation
Tim Litle has been a pioneering innovator in the direct marketing business for over thirty years. After creating the first full-service third-party fulfillment service bureau for catalogs in the 1970s, he was among the first to use computers for list maintenance and was instrumental in helping the U.S. Postal Service develop the carrier route coding system in the 1980s. His most significant contribution was the creation of the first direct marketing payment processing service bureau, while becoming an effective advocate and lobbyist for the direct marketing industry within the banking community.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, banks took a dim view of “card-not-present” or “Mail Order/Telephone Order” (MO/TO) businesses. “They were seen as high-risk, low-value operations” recalls Litle, “when in fact the banks simply had no idea how to evaluate the real risks and value. We showed them that establishing a collaborative relationship made sense, and worked hard to achieve parity with other types of merchants.”
By getting VISA and MasterCard to change their rules, the original Litle & Co. saved the direct marketing industry over three billion dollars annually. It also lowered chargeback write-offs for merchants from about two percent to about 0.1%, created the first credit card installment billing process, and created the original concept for “RFM-Plus,” a service that increases the value of list rentals and exchanges.
About Tim Litle
For more than 30 years Tim Litle has played a major role in the growth and evolution of direct marketing. In addition to his numerous operational and technical innovations, his founding of Litle & Co. helped pave the way for the broad acceptance of credit cards within the catalog and direct marketing fields.
Litle is an active member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). He is currently a member of the board of the Direct Marketing Education Foundation. Formerly, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the DMA, as a member of its Executive Committee, as the founding member of its Privacy Task Force, as Chairman of its Committee on Ethical Business Practice, and in many other capacities.
A frequent speaker at industry functions, Litle has been called upon by the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to discuss cross-boarder marketing, as well as by the White House during hearings on privacy issues.
Litle & Co. was featured twice in Inc. Magazine’s list of the 500 fastest growing private companies, and Tim has been honored with many entrepreneurial awards, including a DMA “Gold Echo” Award for his countless contributions to the Direct Marketing Industry.
Tim holds a B.S. from Caltech and an MBA from the Harvard School of Business.
Contact:
Ernie Schell
The Communications Center
215-396-0610
ernie@schell.com
Chris Long
VP and General Manager
Litle & Co.
978-551-0040, x. 211
clong@litle.com
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