Commentary: The Little Engine That Can't (Without You)
The two-year-old American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) trudges along like a little engine that could. But can it? Despite its newness and relatively tiny membership, this organization has delivered an effective wake-up call to both the USPS and the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on the plight of catalog mailers, helping foster the recent postal “summer sale.”
Most of the individuals from ACMA’s 56 catalog member companies, which shell out a quarter of 1 percent of their annual postal bills in dues, joined ACMA because they felt the Direct Marketing Association had too many other mouths to feed — namely, the DMA’s far more influential letter mailers. The group also has six consultant members and 15 vendor members, who pay a different dues structure. Although many have remained DMA members as well, they felt the DMA’s support for its letter-mailer contingent was working against them in postal rate-setting matters.
But it sure seems like many of these same ACMA members could use a wake-up call of their own. I was rather stunned to find out that just seven ACMA member companies, all of whose raison d’etre is the print catalog, were represented by eight people at a recent two-day forum the group held with several key postal and PRC reps in Washington, D.C.
The few who made it came from companies with annual sales as little as $20 million or so. But they were able to cough up the nearly $1,000 for travel and lodging, etc., forfeit two days out of the office, and tolerate the D.C. heat in August to attend the meetings. As one attendee told me, “I have incredible challenges as a CEO, and as hard as it is to take this time from other things, if I don’t, I won’t have a business and we won’t have an industry. I can’t lose sight of the fact that this needs to be one of my top priorities.”
ACMA members on hand met with Deputy Postmaster General Pat Donahoe, USPS Manager for Catalogs and Periodicals Dave Mastervich and his colleague Doug King, who is USPS manager of direct mail services, and others — all of whom have taken the ACMA’s cry for help to the USPS brass. Members also met with key PRC reps, including assistant directors Margaret Cigno and Charles Robinson, and Director of the Office of Accountability and Compliance John Waller.
As the ACMA’s hard-lobbying executive director, Hamilton Davison, told me after the event, the “quality of the dialogue was incredible. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time the USPS, the PRC and catalogers sat down for a detailed discussion together.”
Representatives from three vendor firms were in attendance, along with one trade group, NEMOA. The DMA, which recently set up a catalog and multichannel marketing segment advisory board to work with its catalog VP, Neil O’Keefe, essentially won’t have anything to do with the ACMA. Four other vendors had signed up to come, but last-minute issues arose. But imagine how incredible the dialogue might have been if more from the catalog mailing community were on hand?
(Full disclosure: Although I was on hand for the ACMA’s postal event this past May in D.C., which drew 70 attendees, I didn’t make the August forum — but then again, my business doesn’t rely on the print catalog; we in the media have our own set of issues to deal with this year.)
At this forum, members discussed with the USPS suits issues ranging from catalog postal processing costs to updated plans for automation of catalog mail to the latest on flats sorting machines. They analyzed ways to make future postage sales, like the one held this past summer, more successful — all while explaining to the PRC reps how they make business decisions on mail volume, which has plummeted since the 2007 postage increase.
The net result? One mailer attendee proclaimed to have established “real relationships” with the relevant people across the many different silos of the USPS and PRC. As an attendee pointed out to me, many of the postal reps on hand “seem to really understand the issues. They’ve spent a lot of time learning, and I believe they’re going to help change things from the inside.”
Counting Davison, the vendors, and postal and PRC reps, about 20 people attended this forum, which took place at the USPS’ L’Enfant Plaza headquarters. I know that’s enough for a pickup baseball game, but it’s far short of what’s really needed to keep the catalog mailing business, as we know it, intact.
No doubt, money’s tight for everyone right now. And virtual conferences appear to be replacing in-person events for many cash-strapped companies. For an organization as tiny as the ACMA — but one with such an aggressive agenda and opportunity to bring about positive change — more members and others with similar interests in the business need to step up to make this happen. Sitting back and watching Davison do a dance on Washington isn't going to cut it.
