Direct Marketing Association

From Free net encyclopedia

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is a U.S. trade organization which seeks to advance all forms of direct marketing.

The DMA was founded in 1917. It is based in the United States, but its members include companies from 53 other countries as well.

The purposes of the DMA are:

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.

The DMA has attracted controversy, as its purpose includes defending and promoting 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).

The UK DMA promotes direct marketing as a useful and everyday part of the consumer's lifestyle and choice, informs consumers of the safeguards that exist, and promotes the DMA as their protector, contact point and regulator of best practice. To achieve this the DMA champions best practice and self-regulation to ensure that its members create an atmosphere of consumer confidence and trust and how companies use personal information by operating within the terms of the Data Protection Act.

The UK DMA manages the industry's preference services: