Direct marketing association

Direct Marketing Associations are national trade organizations that seek to advance all forms of direct marketing. The goal of the DMA is to discover and to thwart possible government regulation." - Jonah Gitlitz, DMA President, October 22, 1990

23 direct marketing trade associations from five continents established an International Federation of Direct Marketing Associations. Founded in 1989, the IFDMA was established to develop firm lines of communications between direct marketers around the world, and is dedicated to improving the practice and communicating the value of direct marketing; and to promoting the highest standards for ethical conduct and effective self-regulation of the direct marketing community.

The purposes of Direct Marketing Associations are generally:

• Promoting direct marketing techniques and companies to consumers.
• Fighting negative images of the direct marketing industry.
• Providing training and professional development opportunities to marketers.
• Conducting industry research.
• Hosting networking conferences for marketers.
• Promoting direct marketing, informing consumers of the safeguards that exist, and promoting the DMA as their protector, contact point and regulator.
• Trying to ensure that their members create consumer confidence.
• Advising how companies should use information by operating within the terms of Data Protection Acts.
• Lobbying against Data Protection Acts which protect data against redistribution.
• Lobbying against laws forbidding e-mail address harvesting.

Direct Marketing Associations have attracted controversy, as they purport to defend and promote spam, junk mail, and telemarketing, which many consumers find irritating and intrusive. The DMA has a political action committee that makes political contributions in order to further its causes. The DMA asserts that the mass-mailings done by its members are both economically and environmentally beneficial (the latter because they supposedly reduce the number of car trips taken by shoppers who would otherwise shop at conventional stores).

Telemarketing legislation

The United States telemarketing industry was affected by a national do-not-call list, which went into effect on October 1, 2003. Under the law, it is illegal for telemarketers to call anyone who has registered themselves on the list. After the list had operated for one year, over 62 million people had signed up [1]. The telemarketing industry opposed the creation of the list, but most telemarketers have complied with the law and refrained from calling people who are on the list.

Canada has passed legislation to create a similar Do Not Call List. In other countries it is voluntary, such as the New Zealand Name Removal Service.

See also

• Data Protection Act

Some DMAs

• International Direct Marketing Federation (IDMF)]
• Direct Marketing Association (UK)

• Direct Marketing Association (USA) is a trade organization. Founded in 1917, its members include companies from 53 other countries.
  • Florida Direct Marketing Association
  • Midwest Direct Marketing Association
• Federation of European Direct Marketing (FEDMA)
• The Indian Direct Marketing Association
• Australian Direct Marketing Association