Unanswered Qs For The DMA
For those willing to read the tea leaves, Monday’s layoffs at the Direct Marketing Association provide insight into the organization’s priorities. What those leaves augur ain’t pretty.
To back up a bit: On October 20, the DMA chopped 21 people from its 120-or-so employee roster. That’s about 18% of its staff. Click here for the full article on the downsizing: http://directmag.com/news/1008_long_term_dma/.
Long story short: The cuts came throughout the company. That includes membership services, conference planning, research and lobbying – but not, apparently, tippy-top management.
The decisions regarding which employees would be cut were probably established long before the Annual conference. DMA got one last hurrah out of ‘em before letting them go, and in light of this it would be fascinating to go back and review all interviews and speeches president and CEO John A. Greco gave during the conference. Especially those dealing with the health of the industry.
The DMA’s sole public statement on the firings leaves much to be desired. It reads, in full, “Like so many prudent businesses, DMA is restructuring to ride out the current economic situation ensuring we remain strong and capable of continuing to provide outstanding service to our members and customers well into the future. As we proceed, it is our hope that the restructuring will be seamless to members. It is our intent to enhance our members’ DMA experiences, build upon our strengths and continue to improve and deepen the value of DMA to the growing direct marketing community. It would be inappropriate to discuss individuals affected by this restructuring. We’ll have no further comment.”
Protecting individuals is commendable. But disguising which specific functions are going to take a hit is not. Phone calls throughout the direct marketing community have revealed only a patchwork of names and titles. A full list of functions would not only be welcome, but could be an essential part of a member’s consideration regarding whether to re-up for membership.
There are other questions to which member companies – which provide the organization’s lifeblood — should press the DMA for answers. These include:
1. As a result of the lowered staff levels, how much longer should member companies expect to wait to have their phone calls or e-mails answered?
2. How do these terminations affect the DMA’s ability to react to and mitigate negative legislative or public relations issues?
3. Was there ever any discussion of asking executives in the upper salary levels to take a pay cut, thereby saving some of the member support positions?
4. The personnel cuts the DMA made in 2000-2001 were done in three rounds. Should we expect more? If so, from which departments or functions will they come?
5. What should DMA members infer about shifts in the organization’s priorities, in light of the cuts?
6. Why was 3-D, the DMA’s headline service, suspended for two days before being reinstated? Was it because members reacted violently to losing one of the few communication pieces from the organization that didn’t involve requests for money?
7. Which pending or in-progress programs will either be suspended or delayed as a result of these layoffs? What impact will delaying or suspending these programs have, and on which segments of DMA membership?
8. Was it a coincidence that most of the cuts, especially among the higher-level executives, were of individuals hired before Greco came on board?
9. Greco is a presidential history buff. In light of point 8, is this reminiscent of Richard M. Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre?
Readers, I leave the positing of a tenth question up to you. The floor — in the form of the space below — is yours.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Good post, Richard.
I think the DMA really does believe that members should continue to pay for ineffective lobbying (Postal rate increases, do not call legislation and threats of do not mail and e-communication backlash) and that they are a vital organization.
I decided long ago not to rejoin, and since their focus seems to be on larger firms, I figured they did not need another “little agency” complaining to them.
Like direct marketing itself, relevancy is what matters to members. I skipped the opening session this year (and attended the annual conference on an exhibit hall only pass per usual). If I wanted motivation I would buy a Tony Robbins book.
Results are what matters and until the DMA can provide them, I’ll stay hid under my rock in Wisconsin and pretend the economy is soaring and direct marketers are immune to bad things ever happening to us.
The reality is what the reality is (did you get that?). The DMA needs to be, well, relevant.
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:49 pm
My long-standing complaint about the DMA – and this predates John Greco’s administration – is that the impact of much of its lobbying efforts is unprovable.
A typical DMA response to “What, exactly, has the organization done for its members” is “You don’t know how much worse such-and-such bill would have been if we hadn’t been there.” This is coupled with “Much of our work is done behind closed doors, in legislators’ offices. It’s not transparent.”
This is not an indictment of the DMA’s Washington, DC operations. I’ve worked with DMA political machers Jerry Cerasale and Pat Kachura for as long as I’ve been at Direct, and they are both damned smart and, I suspect, damned effective. Rather, this is an indictment of the DMA’s ability to effectively tell its story.
It’s hard to prove a negative (“it would have been much worse.”) But it’s not hard to clearly lay out an initial bit of legislation with the law that passes in its final form, and note specific clauses that were either excluded or added and say “The DMA did that.”
Time consuming? Yes. Inside baseball that only policy wonks could love? You betcha. But also one step in showing members exactly where their lobbying money is going.
It’s not a perfect step: One can still wonder about other pressures that result in the changes for which the DMA takes credit. But it’s better than nothing.
When the DMA does not take time to do this, what’s left is public record. And public record gives us stories such as the DMA’s PAC making a donation to Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) – who then turned around and authored the Shelby Amendment, which effectively cut off state motor vehicle departments as sources of date of birth information.
If the DMA has a better story to tell, I wish it would be better about telling it.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:15 am
These are great questions, Richard. You’re right- the members deserve much more information than they have been willing to share. If they won’t respond to specifics perhaps they’ll respond to Question 10:
Do these moves reflect a strategic change in the direction and priorities of the DMA?
October 24th, 2008 at 11:07 am
I’m wondering if the CEO and COO gave up their country club memberships provided by DMA in order to reduce the need for more staff cuts?
October 31st, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Here is my question #10 for the DMA:
You state that DMA08 attendence numbers were quite high, I was even told in Vegas by some staff that the numbers were higher than last year in Chicago. Why then will you not release the attendence figures to the public? Most other trade associations release their respective conference figures!
I don’t think that is very ethical! (no pun intended)
P.S. My own opinion on DMA08 attendence is the folllowing:
Whatever DMA told staff to say there was no doubting that attedence looked noticeably down from Chicago last year. Just by walking the floor I was able to see that.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:18 am
In recent years, I’ve felt that the DMA works inside a “cone of silence”. Attendance numbers are up in Las Vegas? We know just looking around the Exhibit Hall, that it wasn’t the case.
When I look at the DMA now, it looks like the major U.S. automakers. They continue to “sell at” us, and really don’t show us their innovation or value. We should just buy from them, because they’re American?
It is that way with THE DMA. When they re-branded themselves, paying an agency a fortune to add the THE, I think they were trying ot say that they are the association that we all have to belong to today.
Well, it turns out we have alternatives, like our local clubs, interactive groups, blogs that let us get the inside scoop on things.
The DMA used to be a great source of information and networking for us. I don’t know what its purpose is now.
I’m not a member any more.
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
The DMA has become a less relevant resource to the work we do. When I had to make decisions about where to cut expenses this year, the DMA membership was a lower priority than other affiliations.
I’ll renew my membership when I see the value return.