Disappearing
Act at DMA?
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (NOVEMBER 2002)
“The
Place for Face-to-Face” was the tagline for the 85th
Direct Marketing Association annual conference
and exhibition, which landed at San Francisco’s Moscone
Center on October 19 with its customary thunk of “telco-verified”
telemarketing lists and scads of “permission-based email
data.” But despite candid moments with Senator Joseph
Lieberman (he blasted Bush and preened as a pro-business
alternative for the White House in ’04), and a tête-à-tête
with Postmaster General John E. Potter
(his address was the craggily titled “A Critical Juncture
for Crucial Partnership”), there was little doubt that
at “the world’s largest gathering of direct and interactive
marketers,” book publishers may as well be missing-in-action.
True, roving teams from Bookspan and continuity
publisher International Masters were taking their
usual reconnaissance flyovers, while government-giveaways
guru (and Free Money author) Matthew Lesko
could be found sashaying about in his daffy, question-mark
covered suit. PT’s correspondent glumly reported
sighting only one booth-inhabiting trade publisher,
however — that being Publications International,
which gave a big thumbs up for sales of its diabetes
books (a hot topic for baby boomers with Type 2 diabetes)
and its line of inspirational titles. “The days of this
being a big show for book publishers,” our observer
flatly declared, “are over.”
That might be a shame, because by some measures the
direct marketplace actually showed a pulse this year.
Anthrax jitters (remember those?) went the way of Cipro
stockpiles as sales revenue from direct and interactive
marketing in the US last year popped up 9% to $1.86
trillion, the DMA reported, and is expected to top $2
trillion this year. Moreover, the organization is betting
that over the next five years direct marketing sales
growth will outpace overall sales in the US by 3.5 percentage
points — with industries such as health services, securities
brokers, and — yes — electrical equipment purveyors
leading the charge. Even plucking a silver lining from
everyone’s dismally plummeting advertising budgets,
the DMA’s press releases said that the inclement ad
climate was driving dollars into direct marketing as
a “cost effective, measurable way to boost sales.”
So much for the good news. DMA President and CEO H.
Robert Wientzen quick-changed into his grim reaper’s
getup to share results from the DMA’s new quarterly
business review: the inaugural index found that, for
the third quarter of 2002, DMA members reported a performance
of 36 compared to what they had projected for the quarter
— that’s 36 on a scale of 100. And among the group’s
direct marketing users, 60% said their quarter was “somewhat”
or “significantly worse” than they had projected. (The
group had cheerier hopes for the fourth quarter, but
still expected to spend less on direct mail.)
And that brings us to spam, which one study says now
accounts for over a third of all email traffic on the
Internet. Even though consumers are desperately banging
on their delete keys, a DMA report on the “State of
Postal and E-Mail Marketing” said that 71% of those
surveyed indicated that they boosted the quantity of
their marketing email, citing rising postal costs, among
other factors. Email use was up even though 59% of email
marketers said gross responses were flat from 2000 to
2001. (Snail mail response rates were even worse, with
53% reporting flat responses and 21% citing a decrease.)
All of which was further fuel to the DMA’s “about-face
decision” to support anti-spam legislation, which the
group had once vehemently opposed. It’s too little too
late, declared critics, who noted that 27 states now
have do-not-call registries (a defensive DMA even rolled
out its own do-not-call list for cell phones) with the
backlash against telemarketing agents steadily mounting.
So what’s enemy number one for direct marketers? State
and federal privacy legislation that could put a national
do-not-email list — and even a dreaded nationwide do-not-mail
list — on the table. And if that ever comes to pass,
expect plenty more disappearing acts at DMA.
©2002
Publishing Trends
