Multichannel Marketing & Emerging Markets

The multi-channel buyer has emerged as an extremely valuable customer, and
everything must be done in order to find, attract, cultivate and keep that customer.

The proliferation of hundreds of cable TV stations, thousands of Internet radio
stations, over 18,000 specialized magazines, hundreds of millions of personal computers, billions of Internet web pages, trillions of emails, and a dizzying array of offline and online technologies have resulted in a significant upheaval that affects all
advertisers and media properties. Coupled with increasing costs and difficulty in
reaching key demographics, advertisers of all stripes are quickly realizing that tracking ad response, wherever it occurs, in order to justify media spending, has become a major mandate, and in some cases, a necessity for survival and prosperity.

Advertisers have also recognized the emergence of the multi-channel shopper, a
person that transacts business in more than one venue (retail, catalog, online), as being considerably more valuable than singlechannel shoppers. To get the greatest value from these multi-channel shoppers, marketers need to be able to track their purchasing patterns and enable transparency between channels. These changes
are happening at warp speeds: Forrester predicts that 2005 and 2006 will be the
"cutover years" where web sales will exceed catalog sales for those catalogers who
maintain web sites.

All Roads Lead to the Web

Marketers, and particularly direct marketers, have been encouraging people to transact business online for a number of reasons. This "push to the web" as we call it has had a profound effect on many industries, especially travel and real estate, and its effect on advertising and marketing is no exception.

Lower Transaction Processing Costs
It costs significantly less to process an order on the web.

More Orders and Inquiries
Since the web is self-service, companies can handle more inquiries and orders than by phone and mail.

Build Database Faster and Easier
The web enables marketers to build customer databases

24/7 Presence
The web breaks down time and distance barriers, allowing consumers to access web sites whenever they want to, from wherever they are, and using any device they prefer. Time zones become immaterial.

More Convenient for Customers, Prospects
Today's younger generation who have grown up with the 'Net, as well as a large
number of adults, are extremely comfortable with the web, and do not want to wait for information to arrive by postal mail.

Preference of Online to Telephone Operators
Consumers prefer to order online in order to avoid talking to telephone sales representatives.

Special Opportunities
The web affords marketers unique opportunities to generate multiple sales. The best example of this is online gift registries.

Apples to Apples Comparison of Advertising Across Media
With proper tracking in place, advertisers can now accurately compare, for example, orders from a full page ad in USA Today vs. a 60 second TV commercial on CNN vs. a 4-color, 1/2 page ad in TV Guide vs a $25,000 online spending including email and web banners.

Personalized Landing Pages
One of the most exciting and underutilized technologies is personalized landing pages based on the media source, offer and creative. For example, a landing page based on the inbound URL can be dynamically created and served that might say
something like this: "Thanks for responding to our 'One in a Million" promotion for the 'Millionaire's Seminar' advertised in Money Magazine."

Added Value for Advertisers and/or New Revenue Source
As one example, magazine reader response cards could easily be replaced by a trackable, electronic service that delivers people right to the page on the web site corresponding to a product or service featured in an ad, giving the advertiser value-add, quite important in today's climate where advertisers are questioning the value of their print media placements.

Language Navigation
Advertisers who use modified URLs can make it easy for people to go right to
pages in their chosen language, rather than going to a site, choosing a language, and then searching for the desired page.