Obama has said he wants to expand the accessibility of broadband to US communities that now lack it in his push to have hospitals connected with each other thought the web. In order to share medical records easier and faster.
This proposal could open a whole new market area to online marketers.
This initiative will probe into areas where phone and cable companies are involved in, and they, as an industry are still financially solvent, so any government intervention, as we have seen in banking and auto is not being looked at.
Tax incentitves could be an area to explore but this would take some major negotiation with cable and phone companies for them to want to go into unprofitable areas. Yet widening consumer access to broadband could mean an upturn in online shopping as well as opening up rural areas to industrial and service company growth.
There is a direct correlation to speed and activity and how it translates into online shopping behavior; faster speed = more online shopping.
For the advertisers this means more click-throughs and higher conversion rates. You can only imagine how this call for greater broadband access was received by organizations such as shop.org and the Direct Marketing Association.
In a quote by Linda Woolley, evp of governments affairs for the DMA, “If more entrepreneurs and small business had financial support from the government to learn more about direct marketing skills and techniques, they would see their businesses grow and that would help to recharge the economy. We believe that this fits well within the overarching economic goals of the Obama administration.”
As for having medical records going online, the problem is not technology or investment dollars but overall resistance by physicians and hospitals to adopting these systems
Brock Meeks, director of communications at the Center for Democracy and Technology said “We think that it can’t be done on a willy-nilly basis. We like the idea of free broadband for everybody but we want to make sure that all the bases are covered with privacy concerns.”
The biggest benefit of Obama’s proposals to the direct marketing industry would be an improvement in consumer confidence and to the economy.
Larson note: I always have to sit back and wonder about where and what the government should be in involved in. I really hate government intervention in things that are the domain of private industry. I questioned bailing out the investment banks, I questioned giving money to the auto industry {less of a problem here than the banks}. I love the infrastructure innicititive as a place that is the domain of the government. As for broadband, we need to remember the government does not make things, nor does it create jobs, private industry and companies do that. Taxes stop grow and lower taxes, fees and incentitives provide the stimulious to growth. Provide enough insentitives to phone and cable and they will build the broad band system needed. Again I commend Obama on His forward thinking to get this country into the 21st century but caution Him on too much government in a free society.
I question Linda Woolley wanting more government intervention even in a positive area, and would rather the government(s) (Fed, State, County and Local) just get out to the way of the free enterprise system and let the wheels of commerce work. Level the playing field worldwide and let us, (US businesses) do our part.
Yes we are walking a on a tightrope. Let’s not fall off
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
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*Source: Marketing Executives Networking Group online survey of 139 members Sept/Oct 2008
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