The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) gets a lot of flack from press and practitioners, some of it justified, some of it not. Until now, B2B Marketing has remained generally supportive of the association, recognising that it generally does a good job, often in difficult circumstances and with limited resources.
However, recent revelations have called into question my personal attitude towards the DMA, with particular regard to its support for the B2B sector.
As reported in the news section of this edition, the DMA has scrapped its Business List Audit (BLA) data quality initiative, and has effectively mothballed its response to the Government on proposed changes to the way the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) is implemented. Both of these developments are potentially disastrous for the B2B community – data quality and telemarketing are both fundamental to future of effective business marketing, and given the DMA’s role at the focal point of the direct community, it is the only organisation really capable of achieving a real and significant change in both areas.
So why then has it abandoned both? The problem stems from how the DMA is structured around various discipline-focused councils (e.g. telemarketing, email, field marketing etc.), which is a legacy of its history as an amalgamation of various formerly separate trade bodies. A B2B council had been formed, but it was dissolved following complaints from the other councils that this was overlapping on their territory. Currently B2B is represented by a standing committee, but this demonstrates a disconnect between how other interests groups are represented. For example, the CTPS issue is being handled by the Contact Centre Council, although the DMA also generates revenue from running the overall preference service, which potentially presents a conflict. The BLA, meanwhile, had been developed and run by the B2B Committee, rather than the Data Council.
It’s a confusing picture and in short, it seems that B2B is out of sync with the rest of the DMA, which may explain why it is not being prioritised. The DMA needs to address this, and start putting its weight behind B2B issues, or risk being seen as irrelevant by this significant audience.
However, recent revelations have called into question my personal attitude towards the DMA, with particular regard to its support for the B2B sector.
As reported in the news section of this edition, the DMA has scrapped its Business List Audit (BLA) data quality initiative, and has effectively mothballed its response to the Government on proposed changes to the way the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) is implemented. Both of these developments are potentially disastrous for the B2B community – data quality and telemarketing are both fundamental to future of effective business marketing, and given the DMA’s role at the focal point of the direct community, it is the only organisation really capable of achieving a real and significant change in both areas.
So why then has it abandoned both? The problem stems from how the DMA is structured around various discipline-focused councils (e.g. telemarketing, email, field marketing etc.), which is a legacy of its history as an amalgamation of various formerly separate trade bodies. A B2B council had been formed, but it was dissolved following complaints from the other councils that this was overlapping on their territory. Currently B2B is represented by a standing committee, but this demonstrates a disconnect between how other interests groups are represented. For example, the CTPS issue is being handled by the Contact Centre Council, although the DMA also generates revenue from running the overall preference service, which potentially presents a conflict. The BLA, meanwhile, had been developed and run by the B2B Committee, rather than the Data Council.
It’s a confusing picture and in short, it seems that B2B is out of sync with the rest of the DMA, which may explain why it is not being prioritised. The DMA needs to address this, and start putting its weight behind B2B issues, or risk being seen as irrelevant by this significant audience.
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It’s extremely disappointing that the editor believes that the DMA is not placing sufficient importance on B2B when this couldn’t be further from the truth. The DMA has a dedicated B2B Committee which has prioritised a number of strategic issues from DM industry best practice to the creation of a major cross industry B2B Alliance – a significant investment in protecting and promoting the B2B industry. As for the withdrawal of the BLA - it wasn’t ‘canned’ - the decision to withdraw the scheme was based on what the industry told us. Accusations of ‘mothballing’ a response to Government on the CTPS are also unfounded – which makes Joel’s comments really surprising given he was briefed over a week ago by the DMA! The DMA has already been successful in winning some concessions and recently made a further submission to DBERR which it will report on in the comings weeks.
There certainly isn’t a disconnect between how interest groups are represented in fact the cross collaboration and cooperation between councils and outside bodies is at an all time high. As far as the revenue from CTPS I would remind all that the DMA is a not-for-profit organisation and revenue from any initiative or scheme is invested into the industry and its self-regulation to deliver intelligence, protection and growth. The DMA exists for the good of the industry – including B2B - rather than profit.
James Kelly, managing director, DMA
Thanks for your comments James.
I suppose it's really all down to interpretation of terms. As I understand the definition of 'canned' it relates to a ceasing of activity, which is exactly what has happened. The DMA stopped the BLA because it hadn't worked, as the article in our March issue will show (when it is posted). So I'm not really sure what your point is.
As regards the CTPS, I had a short discussion with the DMA press office (not a formal 'briefing') which confirmed that, yet again, no progress had been made on this issue, and the response was stuck somewhere in bureaucracy. If it has not been 'mothballed' I'd be really interested in finding out what has been happening to it for the last four months. Otherwise 'mothballed' will cover it for me. I eagerly await news of further progress, and look forward to congratulating the DMA on news of successful resolution of this long-running issue.
Joel Harrison, Editor, B2B Marketing