How to Take Charge of Multichannel Metrics

Multichannel Marketing is Multidimensional

One of the challenges of multichannel marketing is measurement. The reason measurement is a challenge is because the multichannel experiences occur across a variety of dimensions. It is difficult to capture in just a simple chart or matrix everything that is going on in the multichannel process. In this post I want to focus on the firm's capabilities versus customer preferences using consumer marketing as an example. For example, the customer base has a certain communication channel preference, such as email or mobile.  We have certain channel strategies in place and our priorities are reflected by the resources we allocate..

Customer Preferences vs. Our Strategy

The first step in measuring a channel strategy is to take an honest look at our channels versus those preferred by the customer to ensure that there is a match. The first question to ask is are we spending our money where our customers are spending their time?   If the customer is primarily focused on mobile devices and we communicate rarely over that channel, then there is a mismatch of resources that the analysis will highlight. The overlap in customer channel preferences and our strategy in the figure below represents an opportunity to develop our communications in those preferred channels.

Take Charge by Aligning Channel Preference with Channel Strategy

For example, recent studies indicate that consumers are spending more time online but that advertising budgets are still focused on traditional media. This chart illustrates the time spent versus total ad spend for a variety of channels in 2011. There is a clear disconnect between the time spent on mobile devices and ad spend. This trend is only going to be more prominent as users have been flocking to mobile devices in even greater numbers since that time. Our suggested analysis would show the time spent on channel by the consumer and and the corresponding resources we have allocated to that channel.

Maximizing Channel Strategy:  Don't Overlook Emerging Channels

Another  example of an opportunity for maximizing channel strategy could be tablet devices.  Tablets are rapidly outperforming mobile devices for shopping. The screen sizes are larger and allow for easier shopping. Not surprisingly, average order values, retail traffic, and conversion rates are higher on tablet.  Yet again the spending on tablets lags the activity on the tablet by the consumer.  So the first step to developing multichannel metrics is to develop a strategy that is consistent with customer preferences.  Only by understanding first where the customer is spending time and how they like to communicate can we hope to develop an effective multichannel measurement program.

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.

What Malcolm Gladwell Left Out of His Latest Book

Malcolm Gladwell Keynoted at ACR 2013

I heard author +Malcolm Gladwell   speak at ACR North America~ 2013 on October 4^th. in Chicago  Gladwell provided the keynote address to the conference of consumer researchers that has attracted over 1300 attendees this year. The speech was the second stop on Gladwell’s book tour for his new book David and Goliath.  The book is about asymmetrical conflicts where the smaller party has more power.  For example in the David and Goliath story, Goliath appears to have more power, but a closer reading of the Bible story indicates that Goliath may have had a form of Gigantism that actually left him at a significant disadvantage to the seemingly powerless shepherd boy, David. 

How Majority Groups Maintain Control

Gladwell’s specialty is looking at contradictions in our world view.  His talk on Friday was about minorities and tokenism and what he called “illicit strategies that the majority groups use to maintain control.”  He examined situations where the smaller party appears to have power but actually does not.  Gladwell cited research on female salespersons, for example, where they did better and were perceived better if there were more of them. It seems that fifteen percent is the minimum number of ‘newcomers’ to achieve a number to get beyond the token effect.

The Difficult of Breaking the “Token” Barrier

Gladwell is nothing if not a good storyteller (and a self-styled skinny Canadian). His stories reach the mind and touch the heart.   He used dramatic accounts of the first female painter to have a painting exhibited by the Royal Academy in England, Elizabeth Thompson, as well as that of the recent female Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to indicate that one person is a token and does not break a barrier.  He predicted that if Hillary Clinton or another female were to be elected President they would probably be the last female President for a long time.  In spite of apparent strides in gender equality, to this day only 7% of neurosurgeons and about 5% of the art displayed in American art museums is by women.  These fields have not progressed beyond tokenism to acceptance.

As usual, Gladwell’s insights were thought-provoking and left more questions than answers.  I have read several of his books and use the book Outliers when I teach database marketing.  The way Gladwell approaches problems and digs through data to find anomalies and contradictions makes him a good role model for the developing data analyst.  We got a copy of David and Goliath for attending the conference and can’t wait to read it for its insights and to see if it is applicable to the classroom situation. Many thanks to the conference organizers for getting such a wonderful keynote speaker.

By Debra Zahay-Blatz.
You can find Debra on Google+ and Twitter as well as LinkedIn.