Live from DMA08: Outgoing DMA Chairman Donn Rappaport Outlines a Year of Accomplishment

October 13, 2008 — This morning, during the opening session of the DMA08 Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Donn Rappaport, outgoing chairman of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Board of Directors, discussed the Board’s accomplishments over the past year, and his vision for the association’s future. The conference, which is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is taking place through Thursday, October 16.

Rappaport, who is chairman/chief executive officer of the American List Counsel, Inc. (ALC), began by highlighting the Board’s efforts to combat proposed state Do Not Mail legislation. “This year, the DMA Board marshaled all our collective talent, energy, and experience to forge a Do Not Mail action plan to tell our story to Congress, to the media, and for the first time ever, directly to the consumer.”

“I am particularly proud to report that the development of the Do Not Mail action plan was a joint effort, the result of contributions from virtually every member of the DMA Board of Directors, representing every segment of the direct marketing community,” Rappaport continued. “That is vitally important, because our membership is so incredibly diverse.”

From a legislative perspective, Rappaport told DMA08 conferees, the Board pledged its commitment to the Mail Moves America coalition “to ensure that we are well-armed and properly positioned to defend ourselves against each and every proposed bill that threatens to inhibit the free-flow of commercial mail.”

In addition, he said, “we stepped up our efforts — in Washington and around the country — to make sure our state and federal officials know how important the mail is to the US economy, and how vigilant we will be in its defense.”

Additionally, Rappaport said, the Board organized a Media Response and Outreach program that helps to “shape our story.”

Rappaport went on to tell DMA08 conferees that a key component of DMA’s Do Not Mail action plan involves consumer outreach, which was based on research conducted by Board member companies over the past few years, and complemented by original research conducted last spring.

“The result? Some real breakthroughs in our understanding of consumer perceptions, misperceptions, attitudes, and inclinations relative to direct mail and direct marketing,” he said.

Rappaport pointed out that, taking into account catalogs, magazines, and newsletters, out-going shipments, statements, email, and websites, DMA members are in contact with the American consumer billions of times each year.

“We use those touch points to sell our products and services,” he said. “But so far, we have not employed them to promote the direct marketing brand. We could, of course. And just think of the sheer power if we did. The good news is that virtually every single DMA Board member has agreed that if we can get the messaging right, they would be inclined to make way to carry the message.”

Rappaport said that the new DMAchoice website is a prime example of how DMA is working to make a direct connection with the consumer. “What’s critically important, I think, about DMAchoice is that it responds to a clear consumer desire to reduce the amount of unwanted commercial mail without allowing any third party to come between a direct marketing organization and its customers.”

Although the great diversity of the direct marketing community is one of its most important assets, Rappaport explained, there is also a great deal of common ground. “There are a number of big, common issues, shared by each and every segment — like insuring the free flow of marketing data, like telling the story of our environmental sustainability practices, like preserving the viability of the Unites States Postal System, that only a large, unified, well-funded, resource-rich association, like the DMA, can effectively tackle.”

Among recent accomplishments, Rapport cited the establishment of new DMA segment advisory committees, whose members possess expertise and leadership in their specific disciplines. “Their primary objective will be both to make sure the specific issues and needs impacting their segment are well-understood, communicated, and addressed by and throughout DMA, while the work and progress made by DMA on the larger, more common issues affecting all of us are properly communicated throughout their segment,” Rapport said.

Rappaport shared his vision of DMA as an association with a scope and reach to encompass and serve its diverse membership. “The DMA is our association,” Rapport said. “It’s big, and yet it makes room for even the smallest of companies and the narrowest of market segments. But ultimately, this association belongs to you. It belongs to me. It is ours. And it is, and always will be, what we make of it.”

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