Kevin Hillstrom: MineThatData

Exploring How Customers Interact With Advertising, Products, Brands, and Channels, using Multichannel Forensics.

March 11, 2008

Centralized Marketing Department, Integrated Multichannel Marketing Strategy: Does It Work?

One of the basic tenants of Multichannel Marketing is to avoid silo-based marketing departments, opting instead for a centralized marketing org structure.

The theory is that by integrating marketing across all channels, a centralized team provides customers with a seamless experience, regardless where the customer chooses to shop.

So here's a question for the vendor community that reads this blog. Have you observed a company where, after centralizing the marketing department, the company observed an increase in existing customer retention rates, and/or spend per retained customer, measured on an annual basis?

If the theory of a centralized marketing department and integrated marketing communications is valid, we should see metrics that look something like this:

Customer Performance By Marketing Strategy



HHs Rebuy $/Rebuy Net Sales
This Year: Centralized/Integrated 100,000 55.0% $275.00 $151.25
Last Year: Silo Based Strategy 95,000 50.0% $255.00 $127.50

Vendors --- use the comments section of this post to share examples where there is genuine improvement, as measured by increases in annual repurchase rate, and spend per repurchaser.


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