Letters to the Editor

[Re: Loose Cannon: The Met's CRM Efforts Punk Out, Direct Newsline, Monday, April 9, 2007 (directmag.com/loosecannon/loose-cannon-met-crm-punk-040907/)]:

Richard, Richard, Richard!

How testy you are on a sunny April Monday morning! Perhaps it's the fact that the thermometer hasn't a clue that it's spring -- but you really were a little hard on our friends (yours and mine and several million others') at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

You are like so many of us in our industry: We know all about the state-of-the-art systems and processes, some of which are still a gleam in the eye of the marketer or his IT department. What we are not always as good at knowing all about is the real work that goes on within the walls of direct marketers.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a non-profit entity, whose mission is to collect, preserve and display the great art treasures of the world. As such, its first obligation is to that mission, and I think you'd agree that it performs that work better than almost any. It is very successful at communicating with its constituents, and making certain that its mission is always kept in the forefront of all of its efforts.

On another related point, the Museum is very conscious of the number and economic standings of its supporters, and has instituted a tiered membership that allows folks like us to participate on a level that we can afford. It cherishes all of its members, and would never knowingly put a plan into effect that would not be of benefit to us -- its lowest-tiered members.

In rereading your article, it sounds as if you might be more interested in the passing of the Sex Pistols and feeling left behind by the era than you are in the CRM of an organization which enabled you to feel a little less bereft of your relationship with Johnny Rotten! My advice would be to take a step away from his avowed desire to "destroy everything", and work a little at trying to understand how hard direct marketers are working to build something new and wonderful, in this age of the Internet.

Linda Huntoon
Executive Vice President
Consumer Brokerage
Direct Media Inc.
Greenwich, CT

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You're applying the best CRM principles to a minor issue. You expected a small department of a retail store (possibly staffed by volunteers), to bring all the sophisticated database management of a multi-channel corporation to a simple request.

The Met's only mistake was not to post the "to call list" on the wall in the same room where inventory is received.

Very few institutions, commercial or non-profit, would go to the expense of creating a special program for such a small market. When they start to roll out appeals to upgrade their $50 donors to larger contributions (where you make the real money in fund-raising), you can bet that the highest database sophistication known to man will be applied.

Fred Morath
Fred Morath Direct Marketing
Natick, MA