Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Channel Relevancy

Multi-channel marketing and retailing is not a new thing, in fact Argos claims its been in this business for 35 years now. However, times have changed and the Global economy is slowing down. The way that some companies will respond to this is to switch to lower 'cost to serve' (The average cost required to deliver a service to a customer) models in an effort to reduce staff & overheads.

But how do you know which channels to streamline without impacting your customers and therefore potentially affect revenues in the long term? This is especially important for companies that potentially have the same customer wanting one view of the them, regardless of the channels offered.

Here's my advice for Channel Marketing & Retailing...
Be relevant!

1. Understand your different customer types (create personas, measure, test & develop)
2. Understand their existing channel mix for information & purchase (which may be different)
3. Encourage a lower 'cost to serve' mix
4. But do not force customers to use a mix they do not want to - or risk losing them

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