Editor’s Take: Lobbying

I recall watching a TV sketch more than 20 years ago in which Bette Midler depicted this mopey, depressed woman whose reaction to just about all situations in life was (in the character’s whiney, Noo Yawk accent), “Why bothuh?” Performed solo, the skit and her character were at the same time hilarious and chilling.

When I think of lobbying for key catalog legislative issues — namely, postal reform and privacy — that character often creeps into my mind.

Postal is perhaps the more pressing of the two concerns for catalogers. Since the first postal reform bill was introduced more than a decade ago, the Direct Marketing Association, the Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom) and other groups have spent thousands of dollars in member dues lobbying on the Hill. But each session of Congress becomes a postal “Groundhog Day,” as reform keeps petering out.

This has often struck me as a “Why bothuh?” situation. In fact, as PostCom president and Catalog Success columnist Gene Del Polito tells me, if the current companion postal reform bills — H.R. 22 and S. 662 — aren’t reconciled and signed into law by the president this year, new postal reform bills might not be introduced in the next Congress, as key reps on Capitol Hill are saying they’ll throw in the towel.

Warding Off Privacy Bills

As privacy relates to catalogers, it’s coming from the opposite direction. Whereas postal reform would theoretically make the U.S. Postal Service function more efficiently — thereby presumably keeping future postal rate increases in check — a number of privacy bills over the years have threatened to prevent catalogers from freely mailing to prospects without having to gain consumers’ permission first. Like postal reform, for the most part, those bills have gone nowhere.

Despite the dubious state of these key issues, others will come along. If you’re like many in the catalog business, you sit back and wait for your industry associations and suppliers to help your cause. But you can help your own cause, too; the question is which methods are effective and worth the bother, and which do you have the time for?

You’ve heard it all ever since you took that poli-sci class in high school: Write your congressman if you want to see legislative change. Better yet, visit your rep in person. Are these approaches really effective? “Letter-writing works to a point,” says Stephanie Hendricks at the DMA’s Washington office, reflecting on her days as an intern on the Hill. But that “point” changed drastically five years ago, after Sept. 11 and the subsequent anthrax attacks on the mail a month later. It can take more than a month for legislators even to receive letters, she points out, because all letters go to a big warehouse someplace in the middle of the country where they get X-rayed, irradiated and checked for anthrax. “So it’s not even timely to physically mail a letter to the Hill anymore,” she notes. What’s more, once letters reach the office of your official, they’re opened by unpaid interns sitting in a basement office, who generate automated thank-you notes.

So what approach will make an impact? Hand delivery. No time or money available to visit D.C.? Association reps have the entrée to make personal contact, as do some vendors who sit on association boards. Let them be your couriers. State your case about the vitality of direct shopping, the jobs your company brings to your rep’s district, the gas you help customers preserve by not having to drive to the mall and other positives about your business.

Play The Media

Other easy things can make a significant impact. It's no secret that politicians follow the media closely. Submit a savvy op-ed piece to a local paper. Write something a publication will accept. If your name and issues are out there, politicians will pick up on it.

Postal reform may be dying now, but stand by and be ready to play a role in whatever happens next. As for fending off privacy advocates, lobbying on your part may not be the way to go for now; just be smart. “All the lobbying in the world will do no good if consumers continue to be concerned that they have no control over the use of their names,” says the DMA’s senior vice president of ethics and consumer affairs, Pat Kachura. “When consumers say they want off your list, take them off! And that includes not putting their names in co-op databases.”

Can you make a significant impact on your own? As one high profile woman once said, it takes a village. Might as well join it if you haven’t already. And perhaps these practical and relatively easy ideas will help ease the temptation to utter, “Why bothuh?”

—Paul Miller, Editor in Chief, (914) 669-8931, pmiller@napco.com