We were recently published in a business journal, “The complete customer journey: avoiding technology and business barriers to measure the total value of media“, Business Strategy Series, Vol. 11 Iss: 4, pp.223 – 226, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

ABSTRACT: The notion that online media can lead to offline sales is one that has been gaining popularity among online marketers, in particular, who are eager to show the ever increasing potential of the Internet. Google has published numerous reports reflecting this idea, and multiple companies, including Nielson[i] and ComScore[ii], have set up controlled studies to investigate the effects of online media on offline buying behavior.

In considering the Customer Journey, or the series of media touch-points that make up a consumers’ interaction with a brand, the idea of online-to-offline flow and vice-versa is common sense; as the prolific research and study has proven, however, the difficulty lies in quantifying this relationship in a way that avoids the sizeable stumbling blocks.

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The new Nielsen Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Retail forecast for 2015 predicts the largest dollar share gains in mass supercenters and ecommerce, growing by a combined 5 share points between 2009 and 2015. They suggest that this gain will be fueled by the rise in mobile Internet use, with smartphones becoming the primary engagement channel for shoppers (http://tiny.cc/dps0g).

The accelerated rate of growth for ecommerce seems especially challenging, considering it would need to double the rate of growth from the last 10 years in the next 5 to achieve the 10% share prediction. In order to achieve this kind of growth, I think two things need to happen: one, the idea of ecommerce needs to change, from online purchase only, to partial attribution for online-influenced purchase; and two, a shift in the way that brands connect their efforts across online and offline channels, to integrate Internet capability into their business and marketing frameworks.

Fig. 1.1: MakeBuzz Dual Customer Journey

For companies to leverage the Internet as a sales and marketing channel, as well as for geo-targeting, they must have a framework in place that can facilitate this shift in buying behavior. The current user experience for most websites on smartphones is still lacking, and most brands still need to install other basic efforts to close the gaps in the dual online-offline customer journey. As the smartphone device will continues to evolve, CPG brands need to have this framework in place to support and respond to external innovation, while fostering their own internal innovation.

Neilson is predicting big numbers ahead for ecommerce but in order for this to happen, brands will need to update their business frameworks to be as agile as the consumers they propose to reach, and as innovative as the devices they plan to use.

I recently saw a video of Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? and the popular blog BuzzMachine. He was talking about the idea of the Internet as “connection machine” that “cuts out the middle man” and allows for a direct relationship between the consumer and the brand. He goes on to say that this relationship is far more valuable than the one gleaned through stores and advertising.

What he neglects to mention, however, is that in the real world, a brand cannot be sustained through this connection alone.
Ideally, the Internet is additive to other efforts. Stores can be a vital customer touch point, giving consumers an array of options and a visceral experience that cannot be matched online. Companies that try to subsist off of a direct relationship usually only do so for a short time, before their value eventually weakens. These companies are able to stay afloat through residual brand value created by their marketing and stores, but ultimately, their brand (and sales) decline.

In fact, the only company I can think of that needs very little advertising and no storefront is Amazon, but they rely on the brand value of their products— not their own brand per se. Think of Apple without the advertising or the stores and what do you have?

And what about those start-up brands? How do we propose they build a customer base without marketing and advertising? How do we introduce people to these new products if not through display and touch? I’d like to suggest that Twitter is not the answer and would be hard-pressed to name a brand that was built online alone.

The truth is still that ecommerce makes only a small percentage of the retail economy and the Internet can help drive offline sales, but it is not the primary outlet. As appealing as it may be to remove the “middle man”, or the advertiser, the Internet has not made this happen. What it has done is given the consumer a voice, and provides a channel for dialog between the consumer and the brand, to which marketing can respond.