Organizing for Digital
February 24th, 2008 by Jeff LanctotTags: Change, Digital Outlook Report, DOR, Marketing, Technology
In our 2008 Digital Outlook Report, Avenue A | Razorfish’s CEO, Clark Kokich, made a great observation about the challenges faced by marketers:
Consumers no longer move neatly from one touchpoint to the next, from branding to promotion to sales. Instead, they snack on digital content delivered through a dizzying array of devices. They share ideas about products, companies, and brands, with their brand awareness and purchase consideration formed just as much by trolling a few niche-oriented blogs or peer-generated odes to the product on YouTube as by a national branding campaign. They research online and buy in stores. They shop in stores and buy online. The Internet has shattered the entire concept of a linear purchase funnel.
How can companies organized along traditional lines succeed in this environment? They can’t. Even if they find an agency that has successfully managed the transition, to whom does that agency pitch ideas? The IT department? The direct marketing specialists? The marketing director?
None of these silos has the expertise to judge a truly transformational digital business concept, because such concepts bridge every traditional marketing discipline, and more. Transformational business concepts start with an idea and are expressed across every appropriate digital touchpoint. Transformational ideas integrate elements of brand building, shopping, promotion, and customer retention marketing. These concepts include a heavy underpinning of technology, probably requiring integration into legacy systems.
Sometimes the digital industry does excessive hang wringing about traditional marketers not shifting budgets to the web quickly enough. It’s a valid point, but it’s also important to remember how complex the necessary changes are for marketers. The marriage of marketing and technology that it takes to really succeed in digital is not easy.
2 Responses to “Organizing for Digital”
Jeff, you couldn’t be more dead-on. The issue that we face as marketers is getting our clients to understand this, not just at the senior levels, but at all levels, and then working a cohesive and integrated plan across all channels. This is not easy in terms of getting buy-in and also, timelines. But with that said, we’re all up for the challenge, no?
The timing is an important issue, Darren. It’s increasingly complex to coordinate across channels. Different creative development cycles, media sold at different times, etc.