Multichannel Multimedia Marketing
Changing Face of Marketing Landscape
Marketing has changed tremendously over the years. These changes are brought about by technological advancements, competitive forces, socio-cultural changes, and economic and political upheavals.
However, the core functions of marketing still revolve around the 4 Ps: product, price, promotion, and place. While product and pricing strategies are critical to marketing functions, ensuring they are available at the right place and time is essential to the overall marketing strategy. So, that is why promotion and placement strategies have to be rethought in the age of the Internet.
Right place, right time is a concept very easy to say, but enormously difficult to do (Coughlan and Jap 2016).
Kotler, Kartajaya, and Setiawan (2010) divides marketing strategies over the years into the following categories, based on the core value of the marketing philosophy: product-driven, customer-centric, human-centric, and tech-driven.
This phase of marketing is driven by selling products. It is also called a product-centric marketing strategy, where marketing decisions are driven by product development and product specification. The main focus areas are the product and its functional values.
This phase of marketing is driven by customer relationship. It is also called a customer-centric marketing strategy, where marketing decisions are driven by customer satisfaction and customer experience. The main focus areas are customers and their satisfaction.
This phase of marketing is driven by values to make the world a better place. It is also called value-driven marketing. From the firms’ perspectives, corporate social responsibility (strategies that equally focus on people, planet, and profit) and sustainable production have gained prominence. From the customers’ perspectives, brand-connection, sustainable consumption, and emotional and spiritual well-being are important considerations. Collaborations are key aspects of marketing strategy in this phase.
This phase of marketing is driven by technology to connect with customers. It is also called tech-driven marketing. In this phase, digital and social media have become prominent marketing communication media. Also, data analytics and artificial intelligence are being used for personalization and contextualization of marketing strategies.
The authors have further defined Marketing 5.0 and Marketing 6.0. The former is driven by human-centric marketing strategies using technology, while the latter is driven by metaverse marketing strategies (i.e., immersive marketing).
Multichannel Multimedia Marketing
In a digital marketing environment, the provision of multiple channels for shopping is not an option, but it’s a survival strategy (Wall Street Journal 2017).
Likewise, in a hyper-connected world where customer-centricity is at the forefront of marketing strategies, firms need to engage and interact with their customers constantly. That’s why managing customer experience is crucial across channels, and therefore, firms adopt a mix of multiple media to engage and interact with their customers.
The most effective customer experience (CX) often involves personalization and optimization—providing the right message at the right time, in the right channel, and in the right sequence. (Wall Street Journal 2017)
The change in marketing philosophy from product-centric to customer-centric has made personalization, contextualization, and dynamism essential elements of marketing strategies. Thus, firms are adopting multiple channels to distribute their products and services, and multiple media (or touch points) to engage and interact with their customers. Such a strategy is termed as multichannel multimedia marketing.
Multichannel Marketing
Multichannel marketing has become an essential survival strategy for firms, whereby they adopt multiple channels to distribute their products and services. Two dominant channels adopted by firms as part of the multichannel marketing strategy are online channels and offline channels.
In a multichannel marketing environment, managing customers across channels is a challenging task. Managing customers in a multichannel marketing environment entails design, deployment, coordination, and evaluation of channels to enhance customer value through effective customer acquisition, retention, and development (Neslin et al. 2006). In this regard, there are five major challenges of multichannel customer management:
Data integration: Search, purchase, and after-purchase are parts of the shopping process. Data integration problem relates to what kind of customer data need to be integrated across channels.
Understanding customer behavior: Customers may use channels in a variety of ways apart from purchasing. For example, a channel can be used by customers for price search or product information. Therefore, understanding customer behavior for each channel is important.
Channel evaluation: Channel evaluation entails assessing the impact of channels on firms’ bottom line, i.e., how the addition of a channel impacts firms’ sales and profitability. Also, managers need to assess the synergy among channels to achieve effective multichannel management.
Allocation of resources across channels: Marketing resources within a firm are limited. Therefore, marketers need to find an optimal allocation of resources across multiple channels. For example, what is the impact of channel downsizing on consumer behavior and firm performance?
Coordination of channel strategies: Multiple channels should have a synergy. Such channel synergy is achieved by channel design consideration that involves understanding consumers’ use of a channel.
A well-executed channel strategy gives firms a competitive advantage as it is most inimitable.
Potential Research Questions in Multichannel Marketing
Mobile as a new channel
Omnichannel strategy
- Showrooming vs. Webrooming (They are forms of Research Shopping)
- In showrooming, customers browse products in brick-and-mortar stores and buy them online (click-and-mortar).
- In webrooming, customers browse products online and then buy them in brick-and-mortar stores.
- Showrooming vs. Webrooming (They are forms of Research Shopping)
Extreme demands in multichannel shopping relating to
- Shipping costs
- Waiting time/Delivery time
- Sensory feeling for the products
- Price matching
- Return policy
Competitive dynamics in multichannel retailing.
What is the impact of multichannel retailing on customer loyalty?
Attribution problem.
Multimedia Marketing
Today’s consumers are always-on and connected.
In the age of the Internet, it is difficult to task to separate marketing media or marketing communication into separate buckets. However, for the sake of understanding, we can divide them into the following categories.
Traditional marketing media are marekting media used before the widespread adoption of the Internet. Traditional media consist primarily of radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and billboards (also known as out-of-home or OOH). One can also classify them into different categories, such as audio, video, and display. In the Internet age, these same traditional media can be used in different formats in an online environment.
Online media constitutes communicating with the target audience using the Internet. Apart from the monologue, online media has made dialogue and trialogue forms of communication possible. Online media also opens space for personalization of content for the individual communication channel. Online display, online search, online videos are some of the prominent online media.
Personalization in online media is often achieved by the use of cookies.
Social media is a form of online media that exploits online social networks. However, due to its significance in marketing communication, it is given a category in itself. The use of social media largely depends on the size of the network, the type of network users, and the type of brand engagement on the social network.
Some of the prominent social media channels are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Mobile is a medium where all kinds of online and social media content can be displayed. Due to the personalized nature of mobile devices, marketers must bid specifically for online search and display ads. Also, social media ads need to be customized for mobile devices.
Attribution of Marketing Media
In a multichannel multimedia marketing environment, attributing a particular media or a channel for its impact on sales or customer spending is a very challenging task. However, attribution is an important task that helps marketers in an efficient allocation of limited marketing budgets across different channels and media.
Attribution model in a multichannel environment. (Nichols 2013)
Awareness
Consideration
Trial
Re-purchase
Usage experience
Share information
Advocacy
Early in his career, at a high-profile e-commerce company, the marketing team presented to finance some campaign results that had been generated using traditional analytics methods:
Things quickly became awkward when finance pointed out that the business unit had generated only $110 million in revenue, $50 million short of the reported total. The discrepancy arose because, lacking good data, leaders in each swim lane claimed the same bucket of revenue (Nichols 2013).
Customer Experience Management
Customers may encounter several channels and marketing media during their purchase journey. The customer purchase journey consists of multiple intermediate steps before and after the purchase. Therefore, firms need to provide a consistent, superior experience at each step of the customer’s purchase journey.
An example of a customer journey involving multiple touch points:
Emergence of Platforms
The price of a good is determined by three factors:
- Cost of Production
- Value to Consumer
- Transaction Cost
Marketing channels are important in facilitating the transaction. However, building their own distribution channels could be resource-intensive. New firms, such as start-ups, might not have the resources to develop their own channels. Therefore, they could be reliant on third-party channels. In the age of the Internet, with the emergence of platforms, many firms are utilizing platforms to facilitate transactions.
Digital platforms are distinct from marketing channels as they facilitate “transactions among firms and/or individuals that may not be able to transact otherwise” (McIntyre and Srinivasan 2017).
Auditing Multichannel Multimedia Marketing Strategy
Firms deploy sophisticated multichannel multimedia marketing (MCMM) strategies to reach customers. However, without systematic auditing, these strategies can become fragmented, inefficient, and fail to deliver optimal returns. An effective MCMM audit provides a structured approach to evaluating, optimizing, and aligning marketing efforts across channels and media.
Auditing the MCMM strategy means systematic evaluation of coordinating multiple channels and media to deliver seamless customer experiences and maximize ROI. Its scope should be the following:
Systematic evaluation of coordinating multiple channels and media to deliver seamless customer experiences and maximize ROI
- Channel Strategy Alignment: Coordinated integration of multiple distribution channels.
- Media Mix Optimization: Synergistic use of various marketing media (traditional, new, and social).
- Customer Journey Integration: Seamless experience across touchpoints.
- Performance Measurement: Comprehensive metrics across channels and media for efficient resource allocation.
Here is a framework for auditing a multichannel multimedia marketing strategy:
When it comes to performance measurement, firms could consider the following metrics across channels and media:
- Traditional media: reach, frequency, and GRP
- Online media: CPM, CPC
- Social media: engagement rate, follower growth
- Mobile media: app downloads, in-app engagement
- Multichannel metrics: customer lifetime value, retention rate, and attribution models
- Attribution models: first-touch, last-touch, linear, time-decay, position-based, data-driven
- A/B Testing: Comparing different versions of marketing elements to determine effectiveness
By systematically auditing their multichannel multimedia marketing strategies, firms can identify gaps, optimize resource allocation, and enhance overall marketing effectiveness in today’s complex digital landscape.