Donald Evans, a self-described “has-been oil man” – not to mention U.S. Secretary of Commerce between 2000 and 2004 – reflected on marketing and politics’ conversion during a keynote address at the Direct Marketing Days New York conference.
The most surprising statement Evans made came not during his regular presentation, but during a question period. Asked about Sarbanes-Oxley, the regulatory act that has required increased accountability and disclosure among companies, Evans said that it has created burdens on management, and may have lead to shortened tenures for chief executive officers.
Evans added that some of the restrictions may have resulted in companies becoming more risk-adverse. But, he said, the pendulum is swinging back, and more people are letting the administration know that the regulations are hurting their companies. Evans said he was a “big fan” of Securities and Exchange Commission nominee Rep. Chris Cox (R-CA), whose nomination has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
In his prepared remarks, Evans noted that the 2004 election was a revolutionary campaign. While the seeds were sown during 2000, during the Bush/Cheney re-election effort the campaign team used consumer information, such as magazine readership, church participation and where voters’ children went to school to refine its messages.
Were these efforts successful? Four million more people voted for President Bush in 2004 than did in 2000, according to Evans. These figures include 2 million more female, Hispanic and urban voters than cast their ballots for the President the first time around.
Not that President Bush’s political organization had been ignorant of direct marketing techniques before 2000: Karl Rove, a senior advisor to the President, started out as a direct mail professional.
Turning to global markets, Evans observed that in 1975, only 35 countries boasted free market economies, while in 2005, 135 did. In 1975 these countries encompassed 400 million workers, a figure that jumped to 2 billion by 2005, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the addition of the Chinese and Indian labor forces.
Bush’s second term will be marked by three goals for the business community, Evans said. The first is economic health through making the tax cuts, which were initially enacted with the understanding that they would be phased out within ten years, permanent.
Second, Evans said that Bush wants to encourage younger citizens to invest their retirements funds as they see fit in private trading accounts.
Third, the Bush administration is touting energy independence through the modernization of the electricity grid, conservation efforts and increased domestic energy production efforts.
Finally, Bush is seeking to expand free trade and free markets, thereby creating additional markets for U.S. goods. The Bush administration is also seeing to open the U.S. to outside international companies.
