Targeting and Channel Integration

This week, I ran into a former client with whom I worked extensively when I was at META Group (since acquired by Gartner).  It was like old home week and we reminisced about the projects his team had worked on and my involvement.  The company this client worked for back then had spun off his team as a subsidiary business to be focused on providing online marketing and loyalty services back to the parent.  As with so many dot.bomb era ideas, this one fell by the wayside after a few years and the sub was ultimately rolled back into the parent.  My client told me that after all was said and done, the online marketing implementation we had been working so diligently on was never implemented and the technology company they were working with has since been acquired.  Part of the problem was that online marketing and offline marketing had become so different as to be problematic to the brand.

So it got me thinking about the notion that taking a more targeted approach to marketing in some ways is all about cross-channel integration.  If we look at it from the customer's perspective, the marketing experience must be consistent across channels (and personalized, respectful etc. etc.), and information must flow multi-directionally across channels.  But all too often, I see marketers themselves (artifically in my opinion) segmented based on function:  brand marketing, relationship marketing, internet marketing, channel marketing, etc.  I think this exacerbates the problem of channel silos and ultimately precludes sophisticated targeted marketing.

Here's what I'm wondering:  does tarking a more targeted approach mandate channel integeration?  Are the cultural barriers too great?  Does marketing compensation even get close to encouraging us to work across channels?  So tell me, what do YOU think? 

Comments

[noel margol]

It seems one thing is for sure from the previous topic on “Who Owns the Customer Relationship”: Moving the ownership of the customer to the enterprise level and away from any individual role, function, department, or channel is key.

Of course channel integration is important if you want to build a consistent history of contact with the customer and implement a co-ordinated contact strategy throughout the customer lifecycle.

It’s also true that real customer insight, knowledge and opportunity come from the intersection of segments, channel and product categories. Multi-channel customers have been known to be more loyal and more profitable. And many customers use the online channel for research before purchasing offline. Some buy online and pickup in store. It’s also common for two members of the same household to interact in completely different ways. Not to mention the business benefits of say sending customer information via email and following up with an alternative channel.

The danger is that the separate channel mentality may lead to the old product mentality where product lines or categories were managed independently and we have come a long way since then.

So in my opinion if we want to be customer-centric then channel separation tends to go against the grain of customer centricity, and extreme outsourcing or separate channel management is not in line with this way of thinking.

But your right in highlighting cultural barriers and these need to be broken down since the “just do it” online mentality could do wonders in the traditional offline channels and the channel politics is a barrier to implementing channel integration. From a technology standpoint there is no barrier that I know but I wouldn’t be surprised it sometimes gets the blame when things don’t go to plan.

[Idea Guy]

Thanks for this explanation Noel. I better get on your side. I can see what you mean on it. I guess every question has being answered. Thanks for sharing this up..

[sowmya]

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The company this client worked for back then had spun off his team as a subsidiary business to be focused on providing online marketing and loyalty services back to the parent. As with so many dot.bomb era ideas, this one fell by the wayside after a few years and the sub was ultimately rolled back into the parent. My client told me that after all was said and done, the online marketing implementation we had been working so diligently on was never implemented and the technology company they were working with has since been acquired. Part of the problem was that online marketing and offline marketing had become so different as to be problematic to the brand.

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