A Multichannel Forensics Case Study From MarketingSherpa And Paul Fredrick

This brief Marketing Sherpa case study describes the outcome of a Multichannel Forensics project at Paul Fredrick from last year.

Hint: You can mail fewer catalogs and be more profitable!

Marketing Sherpa Article: Fewer Catalogs, Same Results: 6 Lessons for Saving Big on Mailing Costs.

Click here to contact me for help with your Multichannel Forensics project!

Hologram Marketing and Multichannel Marketing in 2015

A loyal reader sent us this article about Target using Hologram Marketing.

Fast forward to 2015, when we'll read an article that goes something like this:


NEW RESEARCH INDICATES THAT E-COMMERCE AND HOLOGRAM MARKETING WORK TOGETHER TO FACILITATE THE OPTIMAL CUSTOMER MULTICHANNEL EXPERIENCE

October 29, 2015: A new study, commissioned by Google, Yahoo!, Shop.org, Marketing Sherpa, Forrester Research, E-Tailer and Internet Retailer indicates that "multichannel customers", customers who shop via e-mail marketing, paid search marketing, website research, social media, e-commerce and hologram marketing, are five times more valuable than customers shopping via just the hologram marketing channel.

"These results validate what we've been preaching to clients since the early days of hologram marketing ... you simply cannot dive headfirst into hologram marketing without realizing that the customer demands a multichannel experience." stated Leonard Thigginsworth, President of Shop.org, the venerable e-commerce advocacy firm. "Firms that fail to tightly integrate the world of e-commerce with the benefits of hologram marketing are unlikely to thrive in this hyper competitive marketplace. Furthermore, the suggestion that today's experienced online marketers will soon be standing in soup lines is simply premature. Online marketing skills are essential in this highly complicated age of hologram marketing." concluded Thigginsworth.

The study indicated that 61% of customers were "very likely", "likely", or "somewhat likely" to use old fashioned tools like Google and Yahoo! to search for products and services. These customers indicated that they spent 5.3 times as much money on hologram marketing as did customers who abandoned e-commerce in favor of hologram marketing technology from "Holo", the San Jose based brand that utterly disrupted e-commerce in 2013 with innovative "personal holograms" that manage everyday consumer tasks via simple voice commands.

39% of survey respondents said that they were "very likely", "likely", or "somewhat likely" to use promotional e-mail campaigns to facilitate searches on Google or Yahoo!, searches that resulted in customers researching products and services on old-fashioned e-commerce websites, before ultimately giving purchase instructions to their personal hologram.

Darren Manning, President of Internet Retailer, believes these results validate the need for a holistic multichannel customer shopping experience. "We all know that late at night, shoppers wearing pajamas, sitting in front of the fireplace, love to hold their notebook computers on their lap, reading promotional e-mail campaigns and researching products and services in the friendly, safe and encrypted blanket known as e-commerce. This behavior simply isn't going to change because a startup company creates a personal hologram who does menial tasks and chores for you." stated Mr. Manning.

"In addition, do you trust handing over your credit card number or thumbprint to a hologram? I don't! I trust the encrypted environment offered by e-commerce." added Mr. Manning.

The study is good news for Google, a beleaguered old-school brand who lost a third of their search market share to Holo during the past thirty six months, resulting in an 80% drop in share price.

The study is also good news for online advocacy organization Shop.org, which is struggling to stay in business in this ultra-competitive marketplace. "We strongly believe that multichannel marketing is best experienced when customers use a combination of e-mail marketing, paid search, and e-commerce websites to research products and services. Traditional e-commerce-based research drives purchases via tools such as Holo. Research indicates that up to 80% of purchases via Holo are driven by e-mail marketing, paid search marketing, and e-commerce websites. Multichannel marketing, e-mail marketing, and paid search are here to stay. Take away e-commerce, and you take away the e-commerce potential of Holo" stated Ben Morrison, President of Shop.org.

Still, there are fundamental changes in customer behavior being exhibited by "Generation Z", 13-25 year olds who are children of the non-descript "Generation X" cohort of consumers. A recent study commissioned by Holo indicated that only 7% of these consumers subscribe to e-mail marketing programs, or use paid search.

"We believe that when Generation Z become full-fledged members of the "participation economy", (a phrase jointly coined by President Jeb Bush and Speaker of the House Michael Moore), they will appreciate and fully utilize the myriad of benefits offered by a multichannel marketing experience that tightly integrates e-mail marketing, paid search, social media, e-commerce and hologram marketing." stated recently appointed Marketing Sherpa President Sarah Rogers.

Vice President of Business Intelligence And New Business Development, American Girl

A fundamental shift in the job requirements of analytical individuals is occurring across Corporate America. The shift is not positive for E-Mail Marketers, Catalog Circulation Marketers, Online Marketers, Business Intelligence Analysts, and Web Analytics staff.

Read this job description, found on the Marketing Sherpa Job Board, for a VP of Business Intelligence and New Business Development at American Girl.

This position proactively leads the identification and development of actionable consumer insights, market and competitive understanding. This person will translate information gained through the Analytics Services and Consumer Insights areas into actionable implications and assist in the application of these insights into the American Girl strategic plan. Requirements: *Bachelor's degree, Master's degree (MBA) preferred *Minimum of 10 years of experience working in Consumer Products Industry to include Consumer Research and Analytical Services or significant experience in consulting with a major consulting firm. *Direct Marketing Analytics experience at a multi-channel company preferred *Experience contributing to the strategic planning process preferred *Familiarity with multiple channels of distribution, with special emphasis on direct mail and branded retail preferred *Significant P&L experience preferred *Consulting for a major consulting firm preferred.

Notice how this position focuses on using the insights of the Analytical Services and Consumer Insights areas. Notice that this person will come from the Consumer Products Industry, or will have Consulting experience from a major consulting firm (preferred).

In the past five years, our zeal to be "multichannel marketers" caused us to scatter in a dozen different directions --- all honing our skills in different specialties, becoming experts at a tiny fraction of what matters to our customers. We failed to develop a global view of our business. Our leaders don't have confidence in having a web analytics expert do anything else than study web analytics. Our leaders don't believe the e-mail marketer can also drive a social media plan, or can manage television advertising campaigns.

To thank us for diving headfirst into a niche, becoming a subject matter expert, our companies are looking to hire leaders who know how to position eight varieties of Cheerios among potential customers, or know how to articulate opportunities to what is know as individuals in the "C-Level Suite".

If you're an individual working at a catalog, online, retail or multichannel organization, and you have less than ten years of corporate experience, this is a really good time to change course.

Instead of being the expert at working with CheetahMail to get e-mails delivered through AOL, or being the expert at getting CoreMetrics to help you accurately measure the effectiveness of various landing pages, or being the catalog circulation expert who measures the LTV of Abacus-sourced new names --- become the person who is the expert at knowing how EVERYTHING FITS TOGETHER, telling a story that helps executives know what they need to do to be successful.

Right now, your business leaders don't believe in you. They believe in a person who knows how to build a business plan for Cool Ranch Doritos, who knows how to speak to executives. This is the third job description of this nature I've run across over the past four months.

One person, working a division that is now being led by one of these "newly qualified leaders", told me that the new leader (with qualifications similar to this job description) communicated that the circulation folks "knew nothing of actual customer behavior".

Ouch.

It's time to stop talking about RFM, HTML vs. Text, Black-Lists, SEO, PPC, CGM, DMPC, Conversion Rate or Landing Pages.

It's time to stop talking about subject line testing as a "strategy".

It's time to stop talking about paid search as a "strategy".

It's time to stop talking about getting e-mails through GMail as a "strategy".

It's time to stop talking about working with Abacus or Millard/Mokrynski as a "strategy".

It's time to actually create actionable business strategies that merchants and executives understand, and can act upon. More important, it's time for us to be able to articulate our strategies in a way that executives and merchants understand.

If we fail to do this, the folks who manage the "Twinkies" brand will do this for us. I've been impacted by this evolution in job description. I don't want for you to be impacted.

Your thoughts?