Feb 7, 2011

DMA meeting: BIG THINKING

Posted by Wendy Weber

I attended a program put on by the DMA at Google’s NY offices on Friday. I hadn’t been impressed with the DMA in recent years, but was curious about seeing Google’s NY headquarters.

I was pleasantly surprised.

First Larry Kimmel, President of the DMA, took the podium. I had seen him speak (actually shared a podium with him) at a Direct Marketing Educational Foundation event earlier in both of our careers. I knew he would be a dynamic presenter, and he didn’t disappoint.

One interesting thing he brought up was Wikipedia’s definition of Direct Marketing. It’s inaccurate, and damaging to our industry. I urge you to read it for yourself (click here), but particularly offensive are these points:

1. Direct marketing is a form of advertising that reaches its audience without using traditional formal channels of advertising, such as TV, newspapers or radio. Businesses communicate straight to the consumer with advertising techniques such as fliers, catalogue distribution, promotional letters, and street advertising.

Really? Have they heard of the internet?

2. Direct marketing is predominantly used by small to medium-size enterprises with limited advertising budgets that do not have a well-recognized brand message.

Untrue! Virtually every company, regardless of size, utilizes direct marketing. I challenge them to name a large company that doesn’t maintain a customer database and reach out to those customers utilizing mail, telesales or the web.

Many people, and especially young people, utilize Wikipedia as a source of information. If you were thinking about a career choice and saw the definition of direct marketing they provide, you would certainly not think of it as a relevant marketing channel. Kimmel asked us to contact Wikipedia to correct this widely disseminated mis-information.

He defined Direct Marketing this way:

The channel agnostic approach to driving maximum customer satisfaction and optimal marketplace results.

I like it!

I also like Larry’s vision for the DMA. I think he’s making strides in turning it into the relevant organization it once was. In fact I’m now planning to attend the Fall Conference. See you there?

In