Services
Forde and Mollrich is a full service political
consulting and advertising agency. We
provide effective short and long-term political communications programs.
Initiatives
and Referenda
California’s
landmark Proposition 13 campaign, managed by Forde and Mollrich in 1978,
made its sponsor, Howard Jarvis, a national figure and began the modern
era of initiative and referendum campaigns.
Twenty-four
states and the District of Columbia have the initiative process.
They are: Alaska,
Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Maine,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada,
North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and
Wyoming.
The
initiative process allows interest groups to bypass the legislative
process by drafting legislation and submitting it directly to a vote of
the people. Many
controversial issues have been the subject of initiatives, resulting in
hard fought, expensive campaigns. In
California, for example, it is not unusual for campaign spending on
initiatives to exceed one hundred million dollars in an election cycle.
Forde
and Mollrich has provided services to initiative campaigns on a wide array
of subjects, including taxation, water rights, transportation,
reapportionment, crime, term limits, insurance, and securities litigation.
Our
full service approach to initiatives and referenda gives us the ability to
develop and implement a complete campaign strategy, including:
·
Paid
Advertising –
Effective radio, television, direct mail, and print advertising campaigns.
·
Press
–
Briefing key reporters and editors. Organizing
press conferences, distributing news releases, and arranging editorial
board meetings. Early
positioning of campaign arguments with the press is important even before
an initiative has qualified for the ballot.
·
Polling
– Benchmark
surveys, tracking surveys, focus groups, and one on one interviews to
develop and implement effective campaign themes and advertising.
·
Issues
Research –
Developing factual statements and case histories to reinforce campaign
themes and arguments.
·
Opposition
Research –
Gathering information on local and national opposition leaders to use with
the press and in paid advertising.
·
Coalition
Building – Expanding
the “core” campaign leadership to include prominent elected officials
as well as private and public sector organizations.
·
Fundraising
– Helping
clients organize fundraising programs focused on industry and direct mail,
small donor fundraising.
Direct
Mail
Forde and Mollrich
and its predecessor BFC Direct Marketing have produced more than one half billion
pieces of direct mail on behalf of our clients.
We have produced mailings ranging from a few hundred personalized
letters to twenty million piece national membership recruitment mailings. Services include writing, design, layout artwork, and
production. Forde and
Mollrich has the capability to transmit artwork and mailing lists directly
to printing and mailing houses across the country.
Targeting and testing
are an integral part of response oriented direct mail programs.
Forde and Mollrich is experienced in using the most sophisticated
statistical analysis techniques, including TREE and LOGIT®
regression analysis, to target mailings.
Forde and Mollrich is
also equipped to manage the “back end” of the response mailing process
including caging, fulfillment, data processing, campaign reporting, and
mailing list updates.
Vote
By Mail/Registration By Mail
Forde and Mollrich pioneered
vote by mail and registration by mail programs in California beginning in
the 1970’s. Today, nearly a
third of the state’s voters regularly vote by mail.
Vote
by mail programs give campaigns the ability to maximize registration
turnout among supporters.
Database
Development and Management
Forde and Mollrich
creates custom databases which meet client needs in the most
cost-effective manner. Lists
are developed from one of three sources:
1.
Client supplied lists that include membership lists, customer
lists, and other proprietary data. These
lists are often enhanced by adding age data, phone numbers, income data,
political affiliation, voting history, and other important information.
2.
Mail order lists, lists rented on the open market.
These lists are carefully selected to provide access to individuals
who have responded to appeals or causes that indicate that they would be
sympathetic to the client’s cause.
3.
Compiled Lists. These
lists include large national consumer databases and voter files.
Forde and Mollrich maintains a national political database that
contains extensive political and demographic information on 80 million US
households.
Forde and Mollrich
also maintains lists of respondents to our clients direct mail and
telemarketing appeals. These
lists include membership lists, contributor lists, and grass roots
advocates (those who have contacted to their elected officials on behalf
of our clients).
Telemarketing
Forde and Mollrich provides a turnkey service for
inbound and outbound telemarketing projects.
Our services include phone script writing, phone lists, advocacy
calling, “patch through” calls to legislators, list enhancement
phoning, polling, membership development, fundraising, product recalls,
and fulfillment from print and broadcast appeals.
We are also able to provide same day direct mail follow-up to
telemarketing appeals.
Legislative
Strategy
Our firm has
relationships with the leadership in both houses of the California
legislature. We offer clients
the ability to develop a legislative strategy utilizing legislative and
initiative options. We do
not, however, act as lobbyists.
Many years of
experience managing state legislative campaigns enables us to advise
clients on the most effective use of political contributions and
independent expenditures to influence the outcome of legislative races and
guarantee a level playing field.
Grass
Roots Advocacy
Through a combination
of direct mail and telemarketing, Forde and Mollrich can facilitate
communication between constituents and elected officials on the local,
state, and national level.
Techniques employed
for grass roots advocacy range from mail based petitions and pre-printed
letter campaigns to highly personalized individual letters and mailgrams,
“patch-through” phone calls, and individual meetings with legislators
and staff.
In 1989, Forde and
Mollrich managed one of the largest and most successful federal grass
roots advocacy campaigns ever conducted.
This campaign, managed on behalf of the National Committee to
Preserve Social Security and Medicare, produced more than ten million
petitions, postcards, letters, and phone calls to Congress and resulted in
the repeal of a special tax on senior citizens to fund long-term health
care.
Membership
Development
Membership
recruitment and retention is a top priority for professional associations,
trade associations and non-profit issue-oriented organizations.
By utilizing sophisticated public opinion research in conjunction
with direct mail and telemarketing appeals, Forde and Mollrich has
developed a track record of success in dramatically improving membership
recruitment and renewal programs for large organizations. |
