What’s in a name? If you’re a 30-year-old industry association in the midst of a repositioning exercise, plenty.

Plenty of opportunity to update your image with a name that reflects current priorities, or conversely, to alienate key association members who believe your choice of moniker is something of a defection.

That’s the quandary facing the Canadian Marketing Association – formerly the Canadian Direct Marketing Association – as cma members begin to voice concerns over the recent name change and what it may signal about the association’s growth strategy.

Citing an evolving mandate that has already brought new marketing disciplines under the association’s umbrella, the cdma announced in October that 94% of attendees at a special meeting voted to change the group’s name to the more inclusive, if less precise, ‘cma’.

cma president and ceo John Gustavson says the line between direct and traditional marketing disciplines has become blurred due to the increasingly integrated approach taken by major marketing organizations. That, he says, along with the fact that the word ‘direct’ has been stigmatized for its association with ‘direct mail’, suggested the need for a new name that better suited the organization’s current reality.

Despite those arguments, the change has left some cma members wondering aloud if the broadened scope might mean a watered-down commitment to the association’s traditional direct marketing constituency.

‘I understand that the purpose of the change is to attract new disciplines that are not currently engaged in traditional direct marketing activity,’ says Harjinder Atwal, executive vp and general manager of music mail-order icon Columbia House. ‘But my fear is that, as this happens, the focus will eventually shift away from direct marketing issues.

‘That’s a primary concern, because direct marketing is a rapidly growing, $12-billion business and it requires a strong voice – a body dedicated to the unique issues it faces.’

Atwal’s concerns are echoed on the agency side by Dean Maruna, senior vp and creative director at Toronto-based Mosaic Direct. He thinks dropping the word ‘direct’ has left the association with an imprecise label that fails to describe the kind of work direct marketers do, while at the same time muddying the distinction between it and other broad-mandate marketing associations like the Association of Canadian Advertisers (aca) and local chapters of the American Marketing Association (ama).

As for the baggage associated with the d-word, ‘Just because people interpret ‘direct marketing’ as meaning direct mail, that’s not sufficient criteria for changing the name,’ says Maruna. ‘The way to solve that is by educating all of the potential prospects out there about the multi-faceted nature of direct marketing.

Direct marketers still face challenges that set them apart from their counterparts in traditional areas like general advertising and promotions, says Fransi Weinstein, senior vice-president and creative director at BBDO Response in Toronto. And though she admits choosing a brand name can be one of the most difficult tasks in marketing, she thinks this one is clearly off the mark.

‘It doesn’t reflect the business we’re in,’ she says. ‘General advertising introduces individuals to brands. We create relationships between individuals and brands. I don’t think the name ‘Canadian Marketing Association’ communicates that.’

Still, cma president John Gustavson is confident that the association can prove the wisdom of its new direction to the naysayers.

‘I acknowledge that the cdma was successful because we remained focused on a handful of manageable issues, and that if we lose that focus, we’ll lose our support,’ he states. But then adds, ‘We’re at record renewal notices for 1999 and I’m confident that, given our track record, even people with concerns are going to give us a chance. The concerns are valid, and I don’t want to be dismissive of them, but I think we will prove them wrong over time.’

While he’s not a fan of the new name, Michael Price, a partner with Toronto-based mailing house Postal Promotions, generally agrees with Gustavson, saying the industry’s shift towards the integration of marketing disciplines – the shift that the association now hopes to reflect – has been evident, to some extent, within his own company.

‘Eight years ago, we generated over 90% of our revenue by putting things in envelopes,’ says Price. ‘Now, about a third of our revenue comes from putting things in envelopes, a third comes from the data side and a third from the fulfillment side – yet we’re still known, like the cdma was, as mailers.