DM Days ’09

I dropped by DM Days at the Javits center yesterday. Here is my impression, with a few disclaimers first:

• I visited on the last day of the conference and exhibition;
• It was raining heavily in the city;
• I only visited the exhibition;
• We’re in the worst recession in decades.

Having said all that, the exhibition was tiny, and as I walked the floor, I was the first and only visitor that morning according to the many exhibitors hungry for someone – anyone – to talk to. Over the years, I’ve been in their shoes once or twice, so I understand what they were feeling…it’s like throwing a party and having no one show up.

The malaise in direct marketing, while certainly due in part to the economy and the continuing rise in postal costs, reflects, I think, a deeper problem, one that I see as well in the newer direct marketing channels of email and mobile marketing. It’s that the departments and vendors responsible for conducting such programs are no longer bringing strategic insights and programs to their organizations.

Here’s a news flash: there is nothing strategic about list hygiene, envelope design, printing, lettershopping, or any of the other myriad details that direct marketers talk about. Nor are newer innovations like PURLs strategic. These are all valuable tools of the trade, but not something that is of interest to a senior manager trying to grow revenue and profits.

A quick read of an “old-school” direct marketing book, like Lester Wunderman’s Being Direct, reveals a time when direct marketers were strategic: they were building new businesses, developing true marketing strategies, and working with the heads of companies and senior executives. Certainly, there is an aspect of the “moment in time” to that past, because a few decades ago, direct marketing was analogous to social media today: a “hot” marketing technology that promised  to change the way companies market.

If direct or database marketers are to remain relevant, they need to start thinking again of wider business problems and formulating strategies that generate significant revenue opportunities for their companies, or for their clients, if they are vendors in the space. I believe the strengths of direct marketers have always resided in their direct connection to customers and in the data they command. These are the assets they should be leveraging, in order to re-inject themselves into the discussions of strategy.

With that, I’ll climb down from my soapbox. For now.

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