Winds of Change at the DMA I’ve been an active member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) for almost seven years now. It’s kind of the Mac Daddy of trade associations in and around our business. The DMA has taken its lumps of late, mostly deservedly so, and I think made some terrible moves, misjudgments, and decisions a few years back. But I’ve continued to be an active member, mostly convinced by new DMA CEO John Greco and COO Ramesh Ratan that there was a new sheriff in town who was going to restore peace and order to the village. John and Ramesh have a deep understanding and deeply held convictions about consumer experience and permission — and about the…
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John Greco
Everyone’s a Direct Marketer, Part I
Everyone’s a Direct Marketer, Part I I had breakfast a few weeks back with John Greco, the new CEO of the Direct Marketing Assocation, and was telling him why I felt it was essential that interactive marketing be included in the DMA’s mainstream mission and not regarded as separate. The substance of my argument was that the Internet has turned every company into a direct marketer, whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, and whether they care to act like one or not. I was happy that John agreed with me! I’m going to write a three-part posting on this topic. First topic: Why is this happening? 1. The mechanics are now ubiquitous. Every company’s…