International Direct Marketing Consultants was founded in 1990 by Bill McNutt, a third generation direct marketer and former Collin Street Bakery Vice President, who served in the Reagan and Bush Administrations. During his tenure in Washington, McNutt worked in the Office of Privatization in the Reagan White House and created the first in-depth study of the 1992 European Single Market Program for the Bush Administration while working for Elizabeth Dole at the Department of Labor.

Working in the White House, McNutt realized that several important factors were converging to create a new wealth of global opportunities for American direct marketing companies: including the privatization of telecommunications and postal administrations, declining tariffs, and increasing credit card penetration that would allow international consumers and businesses to buy and sell products across borders using direct marketing.

"It seemed like the timing was right," said McNutt "to help other companies expand across borders like Collin Street Bakery." By the mid 1980's, the famous Texas bakery had customers in more than 190 foreign lands. Collin Street was the first company in the history of the direct marketing industry to win the coveted "E Award" for excellence in Exporting from the United States Department of Commerce.

International Direct Marketing Consultants teamed with the Office of Service Industries in the United States Department of Commerce to conduct the first ever U. S. Trade Mission exclusively for the direct marketing industry. The trip took place in early 1991. Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher said, "We wanted to reach out to new industry sectors that had been overlooked as exporters. We believed that direct marketing would allow small and medium U.S. firms to test foreign markets without plants, partners or even a presence.

A well-balanced delegation represented the United States on that first trip. It included executives from consumer catalog companies, LL Bean, and The Bombay Company; b to b catalogs Lab Safety Supply and Upbeat Inc.; DRTV firm, W.C. Linden, and express carrier, TNT Express Worldwide. From the publishing side of the direct response industry came Publishers Inquiry Services. Rounding out the group were service suppliers Scully Data, World Data, Dartnell List Brokers, Market Response International and Ridenour & Associates, specializing in executive search.

Later in 1991, IDMC organized and lead the first US Trade Mission to Canada. The following year, 1992, IDMC organized and lead the inaugural U.S. Trade Mission south of the border to Mexico.

In 1992 IDMC won the Professional Service Award from the International Trade Association. This award was based on IDMC's leadership in encouraging and assisting direct marketing companies to expand outside the United States.

1995 brought the first trip to South America with stops in the ABC countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile). The following year, the organizers of the largest direct response conference in Asia, DM Asia, approached McNutt to recruit and lead a delegation to attend their event in 1996. McNutt declined. "I was not comfortable putting our reputation on the line to attend a new conference that did not have a proven track record. " After talking to industry leaders and respected journalists from Europe and the U.S. who had attended the event, McNutt did lead the first U.S. Trade Mission for DM to Asia in 1997 that included a stop at the DM Asia Conference.

Today, over 40 Trade Missions have taken place. More than 350 top executives, directors and business owners from 300 plus companies have benefited from targeted trips and tailor made agendas to more than a dozen countries and four different regions of the globe.

Beyond the Trade Missions, IDMC has a client roster that reads like the "who's who" of the direct marketing industry, including Neiman Marcus Direct, Damark, Talbots, Victoria's Secret, International Masters Publishers, Sheplers Western Wear, JC Whitney Automotive, MCI, ASD Systems, Manning Media International, and many more.

The firm has been written about and highlighted in every major direct marketing publication in the United States and Europe, as well as respected business periodicals such as the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Business Journal and the Journal of Commerce.

At IDMC, we learned one piece of wisdom years ago: always express gratitude to those who deserve it, never forgetting the importance of the words "thank you." In line with that wisdom, we would like to thank the many employees and friends around the world for the great value they continue to generate. We thank them for helping us grow and learn.

Our company would especially like to recognize and thank L.W. McNutt, Jr., the father of our President, Bill McNutt, III, for his support, sound advice, love and support. With his soft-spoken wisdom, unwavering optimism and disciplined business philosophies, he has exerted a distinctive, positive influence on international direct marketing as a whole and on our company in particular.

billmcnutt@home.com