A communications committee was formed yesterday by the DMA List Leaders in Action Committee to help manage public relations for the industry. Considering the double threats of anthrax and a weakened economy, it couldn’t happen at a better time.
The group plans a number of initiatives to spread the word about direct mail’s positive aspects.
“We have to move forward, and we have to deal with this,” said David Schwartz, president of 21st/AZ Marketing and head of List Leaders.
The committee will draft a list of key points to be brought to the public’s attention and disseminated to the national media. One such point would be touting the processes in which advertising mail is created and then handled throughout the U.S. mail stream.
How that information will be delivered is being discussed. One suggestion is to craft columns or letters to the editors for local newspapers around the country. Another is to send out There was a sense of urgency at the meeting to counter the massive amounts of media coverage that have been detrimental to the industry including postmaster general John Potter’s recent warning that the postal service cannot guarantee the safety of mail.
Participants also suggested that list companies encourage clients to send communications to their customers about the benefits of direct mail. Some attendees said they were already doing that via e-mail.
The initial members of the committee, who volunteered yesterday include: Betty Abion, Response Media Products; Chicca D’Agostino, Focus USA; Steven Glaser, J.F. Glaser Inc.; Linda Huntoon, ClientLogic; Susan Rappaport, American List Counsel Inc.; Chris Paradysz and Elisa Debrito, both of Paradysz Matera and Larissa Hansen, Aggressive List Management. Close to 40 list professionals attended the meeting.
List Leaders is also considering creating a group of six to 12 list professionals who would meet with legislators on a number of critical issues, including privacy legislation.
A key concern is that any development of online privacy legislation be a separate consideration from traditional direct mail. An opt-in policy, under review in various forms for e-mail marketing, could have a devastating effect if imposed on direct mail.
“The impact could be staggering on our business,” Schwartz said. Both the public relations and the legislative committees would work in conjunction with the DMA.
In other news, List Leaders is considering revitalizing the Electronic Data Interchange effort, a technology to streamline the order processing functions of the list business.
Two approaches to revamp EDI were presented at yesterday’s meeting: A decentralized system with an established protocol for sharing information or the development of a centralized Web site.
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