Washington—The Wednesday morning opening session at the second annual National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum, sponsored by the American Catalog Mailers Association, drew about 60 people.
During his welcome address ACMA Chairman Stan Krangel had clearly counted on seeing more mailers. “I would’ve hoped to have seen 1,000 people.”
But he was grateful to the catalogers that did make the trip: “Thank you for coming. You have the vision to be here today, and you get it.”
Krangel, president of gifts cataloger Miles Kimball, implored attendees to reach out to friends, vendors and ask them to think about ACMA. The ACMA was formed only two years ago, but has “made great strides in that time and been a highly visible representative of the catalog industry here in our nation’s capital.”
Catalogers have been struggling with falling sales and rising costs, namely postal. Consumer demand has been down, Krangel said, and it “doesn’t look like it’s getting better” anytime soon. “And unless we understand we can make a difference, it will be tough sledding.”
ACMA Executive Director Hamilton Davison referred to catalogers as “the single greatest under-represented customer constituency in the U.S. Postal Service portfolio.”
Krangel urged ACMA members to spread the word for a call to action. “If we want action on the catalog business, we need to take responsibility for our own destiny.”