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A recent survey panel reported a mean response of 27% when asked, “on a scale of 0% to 100%, how many marketers suck?”

In true Hollywood fashion, the DMA announced their headliners for this year's DMA Days conference. The keynote speaker will be... drumroll please.... Ivanka Trump - that skilled expert in direct marketing and ROI.

Is it possible that the DMA is losing sight of its role and mission? In this current environment where attracting paying registrants to conferences is so difficult, they seem to have err'd on the side of flash and glitz rather than meaningful substance and advancement of the trade.

It strikes me that the spirit of "Yes We Can" is very applicable to marketing at this particular point in time when many have recently suffered significant cuts in marketing budgets owing to their lack of ability to demonstrate the financial value derived from those investments.

Yes We Can apply more discipline to how we measure the payback on marketing investments without increasing the workload proportionately.

Yes We Can embrace this discipline without harming the creative energy so critical to marketing success.

I got an email today from the Marketing Research Association spelling out the "top 6 issues for protecting the profession". Included were:

1. Increasing difficulty of reaching consumers via cell phones
2. Consumer fears of behavior tracking
3. Stage and federal government interest in shady incentive practices used to entice medical professionals
4. Unpopularity of "robocalls" and automated dialing
5. Public backlash to "push-polls"
6. Data security and breach protocols

Wrong.