THE DMA BOARD OF DIRECTORS APPROVES NEW STRATEGIC PLAN

NEW YORK, January 24, 2005 – The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) today announced at a press conference that its Board of Directors unanimously approved a new strategic plan to focus the Association on the health, growth and vibrancy of the direct marketing industry.

The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan: Secure, Trusted, Mutually Beneficial Relationships will serve as a road map for the next 5-10 years. The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan will lead the Association into the future by formally adopting a 'big tent' view of membership – that it will reach out to any organization using any level of direct marketing as part of its marketing and advertising mix. A second unique feature included in the 2005 Strategic Plan recognizes that as direct marketers, suppliers and customers are linked together in a synergistic value chain process, the plan identifies lower intensity direct marketers and end customers/donors as important elements of the industry.

"The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan truly is a shift in direction and gives The DMA a new lens through which we can view the range of options available to us. The key difference from the prior plan is its outward, industry focus," said John A. Greco, Jr., president & CEO, The DMA. "We believe that the plan provides a durable strategy for The DMA as it positions itself to tackle the key mega-trends in the direct marketing marketplace: growing industry diversity and consumer power."

"The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan allows us to promote and protect the direct marketing process while we build a bridge of trust with our most important stakeholders: current and prospective customers/donors, legislators, regulators, members, prospective members and the larger community," said Ronald A. Bliwas, DMA Board chairman and president and CEO, A. Eicoff & Company, Inc. "Consumer trust is key to the future health, growth and vibrancy of the industry."

The essence of The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan is as follows:

DMA Vision: The DMA will represent the entire direct marketing community across the complete (end-to-end) direct marketing process in order to create the most attractive marketspace for all participants.

DMA Mission: The mission of The DMA is to expand the attractive zone of the Direct Marketing marketspace to maximize the long-term economic interests of its members.

DMA Strategy: To champion, protect and expand an economic and cultural environment in which direct marketing can flourish through an industry-wide effort to build a bridge of trust that enables businesses and organizations to acquire customers, enhance their choices and create mutually beneficial relationships through the responsible acquisition of, access to, and use of relevant customer and donor information.

The DMA will work over the coming months on two parallel tracks that will breathe life into the new strategic plan. The DMA will:

1) Create the operating plan and budget for fiscal year 2006 consistent with this strategy,

2) Make certain that the language of its vision, mission, and strategy have the necessary clarity with the broadest set of stakeholders as part of an overall branding and communications process.

To achieve its goals, The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan identified four key competencies w where the Association must be world-class:

Political Representation
Consumer Knowledge and Outreach
Member Segmentation
Developmental Programming

"The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan will provide clarity of direction for allocating resources, setting policy and creating priorities for The DMA," said Robert A. Stagno, chairman, The DMA Strategic Planning Committee and GM, relationship marketing, Microsoft Corporation. "The DMA recognizes that the needs of direct marketers will change as their businesses continue to evolve and the revised strategic plan will allow us to deliver value to members at the various stages of their business’s growth."

The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan outlines the aspirations, mission and a broad strategy for The DMA and will be a guide for making informed and appropriate policy decisions in critical areas such as, political representation, consumer research, membership offerings and branding, as well as others.

"The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan is exactly what we set out to achieve when we began our work last year," said Becky Jewett, immediate past DMA Board chairman and vice chairman Norm Thompson Outfitters, Inc. "With so many stakeholders involved in the process, I am even more delighted by the inclusiveness and transparency that have been hallmarks of developing this plan."

The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan focuses directly on five key goals. By pursuing these goals simultaneously, The DMA seeks to achieve the larger strategic objective of expanding the intersection of the interests shared by marketers, their current and prospective customers and donors, regulators and legislators. The DMA 2005 Strategic Plan refers to this intersection as the Direct Marketing Convergence Zone, which can be expanded by focusing on:

Increasing the excellence of direct marketing among all members,
Expanding awareness of direct marketing benefits in all constituencies,
Enhancing current and prospective customers' and donors' trust and choice,
Increasing the share of excellent direct marketing in primary and secondary intensity segments,
Identifying and developing opportunities for more direct marketing of the highest quality within all vertical segments.

"Simply put, this plan confirms our belief that commitment to high ethical standards and successful marketing are mutually inclusive, said Greco. "By creating such an environment, the Convergence Zone will expand naturally – leading to greater opportunities for all involved, from marketer to customer or donor to everyone in the middle. We are more committed than ever to ensuring a secure, trusted and mutually beneficial marketplace."

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The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading trade association for businesses and organizations interested in direct, interactive, and database marketing, which in 2003 generated more than $2.2 trillion in US sales, including $134 billion in catalog sales and $41 billion in Web-driven sales. In addition to catalogs and the Web, DMA members employ a wide variety of marketing media, including mail, e-mail, telephone, newspapers and magazines, interactive television, and radio, among others. Founded in 1917, The DMA today has more than 5,200 corporate, affiliate, and chapter members from the US and 44 other nations. Reflecting the significant and growing role that direct marketing plays in today’s advertising mix, The DMA’s membership represents marketers from every business segment, including catalogers, Internet retailers, retail stores, nonprofit organizations, advertising agencies, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, industrial manufacturers, and a host of other vertical segments, as well as the service industries that support marketers.

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