Great post at the Center for Media Research blog about the importance of multi-channel coordination and synchronization which is going to be covered in more detail in the DMA report "Channel Integration and Benchmarks in the Retail Industry”.

Here is a good snippet from Eugenia Steingold, Ph.D., DMA senior research manager and the report's chief author, "To be successful, retailers need to merge and synchronize all channels in terms of consistent brand message, timing, creativity of promotions, loyalty programs, and fulfillment.”

She also concludes that, “To achieve such a level of integration, organizational support and restructuring might be necessary." I agree this is the case in a larger retail organization, having seen this first hand. But for many of our clients it a matter of planning and having the right content support, which can be just as hard.

Another interesting point made in the report is the importance of the web-site as a direct marketing channel, not just a sales channel, for multi-channel retailers. While intuitive, since this is so hard to measure this is often overlooked.

- Brian

(And yes, I did go back and look at The Police’s 1983 Album to see if there was a clever way to include that, but I decided to spare you...)