VERBATIMS
What are the greatest obstacles to effective communications at all touchpoints, and how does your organization overcome them?
The greatest obstacle is that there are so damn many touchpoints. We overcome that by focusing on the touchpoints that are most likely to achieve our marketing objectives.
Management buyin
Lack of participation at retail level by employees
The budgets are everywhere, with no easy link between planning/implementation calendars, strategy, and workforce collaboration
Getting competing agencies who may own one piece of the communication to collaborate. Decentralized brand marketing management (media planning, account/ retail specific/ national, etc.) - they usually don't know how other divisions are marketing their same brands. At retail, the biggest obstacle is the balance between the madness and clutter and information and simplicity.
Budgets from the clients
too many channels to coordinate, too much clutter in the "touchpoint" arena, keeping pace with "new" ways to reach consumer that motivates the wallet
Online and retail display clutter.
The continuing divide between Sales and Marketing departments. The continuing discord between Multiple Agencies. Key job of Management is to recognize need for agency and departmental unity
Getting all the players to sing out of the same song book, and be in harmony.
One of the biggest obstacles is the lead time needed to implement different communications, i.e. POP has to start much earlier than radio. This can be compounded in some organizations by different groups being responsible for different communication vehicles. One of my responsibilities has been as an Integration Leader managing across communication vehicles, business units and product lines to ensure integration.
Orgainizational focus, lack of dedicated resources. Task force assigned.
lack of staff and budgets to make sure all steps are covered and extra advantages taken - force you to slect among opportunities
limited budgets, often spent first in traditional outlets and what is left over for retail initiatives sometimes is too limited.
resistance to change
The old fashioned and ingrained processes in marketing, the vested interests and inflexibility of agencies and media owners.
Costco's method is brilliant...people want to control their purchasing decisions. If they want to think more about a purchase, they can do it on their own time, at home. Controlled. If they want convenience of the kiosk (time saver...in the mood to check one more thing off the list) they will use it. Commodities stores (office supplies) web sites are too involved and complicated (too many screens to find a product, not intuitive) to make buying from them easy. It is simpler to go to the store. Office Depot might take a clue...they could have all their furniture choices on line and have smaller stores. I hate tripping over an office chair to get to the paper I need.
Retailers are the greatest obstacle. We ignore them and sell directly to consumers - DR TV, home shopping, e-commerce, live events.
managing the orchestration and execution
Clarity of vision, unfocused brand vision, incentives, communication
The obsticle is a clear strategy of what a brand stands for and making sure that the strategy is communicated at all touchpoints, maximizing each in their own right - not necessarily copying from one touchpoint to another.
What is missing is an effective, active means of bringing the branding messages that millions are spent on in traditional media into the store. We promote our message - and those of other brands - right at the point of decision by using custom in-store television.
Conflicting priorities among departments responsibile for touchpoints
The gulf between sales and marketing - working together
Creating and integrating a sales atmosphere for our people and consumers. Motorsports is a great way to maintain a downstream and touchpoint effectiveness "when the consumer wants".
Full integration of Sales dept and the retailer into the brand plan
Issues with point-of-sale customer service representing our true brand. All of the strategic planning in the world can't ensure success without the right people at point-of-sale with the consumer
biggest obstacles: measurements and channel alignment ways to address: enhanced database marketing (eg tagging accounts) and communication/goal alignment
Our products are sold through distributors. It is very difficult to get through the distributor to the retailer. Many times we forget the consumer and focus soley on the Distributor to the detriment of the retailer and the consumer.
money and belief that multiple touchpoints are better than the top 1 or 2
We need face to face appointments with key decision makers...have a specialist in getting appointments working for us
Quality control when the touchpoint is managed by someone else
Organizations are structured from an internal effectiveness perspective. Especially retailers. Getting everybody to "play nice" is almost impossible in many cases as so many agendas get in the way of the consumer. From the outside it would seem so simple, to fix, and yet from the inside it's almost impossible. The companies who are "customer centric" (like Best Buy) are beginning to get what it's about. Others like (Sears) are lost causes.
I work for a firm that still is placing too much emphasis on "the :30 ad", not the entire brand/response experience.
Trying to incorporate the right message in the available medium without diluting it
Communication lack of understanding
Silos of who owns the channels and their sales goals. No one person owns the customer and customer experience.
The fact that VP Marketing, VP Sales, and VP CRM are in the hands of 3 different persons : there should be someone above them, called CCO, and above the CCO, the CEO
short-sighted goals by diffferent departments, difuse the message.
The greatest obstacle is finding the 'sweet spot' at which the interests of all the players intersect and getting database people who fancy themselves high priests of arcane knowledge to which only they are entitled to loosen their death grip upon the information required to make all of this work.
Store inability to implement instore communications tools. We develop self contained sales units (pallet drops, etc so it is painless to the retailer.
In our field, the greatest obstacle is making sure the touchpoint simulus is pertinent to the target demographic.
integration of database looking for software and IT solutions
Our target must feel and touch our product image
Cross functional silos Traditional budget definitions
Time to intergate programs
The greatest obstacle is how to understand the ROI and plan to maximize it, accordingly.
Money - clients have small budgets so have to pick the touchpoints with the biggest impact/ noise/ likelyhood of increasing sales.
inertia
Vigilance. Full circle commitment. Accountability. Getting buy-in from top down.
as a franchise model, our biggest challenge is achieving complete and precise execution at the retail level. We are spending increased energy and resources on selling our programs into our Franchisees in order for them to be effective at reaching the Consumer.
building the distribution within retail is our most challenging hurdle. once built, easy to prove roi
Lack of upper management insight as to the value of: a) our customer b) our customer's relationship with their customer c) the timliness of a touchpoint program 4) how to spell touchpoint
As a fashin mfgr, we have similar limitations as many - little direct contact with consumers; challenges in generating trial; little marketing emphasis below the top of the marketing / comms funnel. To overcome, we are testing direct distribution options (stores, web, etc) and re-visiting marketing thrust.
Understand, agree, and accept a definition of touchpoint marketing
Different budget holders internally
It would have to be clients reluctance to allow an agency to effectively implement a plan that includes all touchpoints.
Cost for integrating all these issues
At present, my agency is not involved in our clients' marketing plans or media planning. If our clients don't include "non-traditional" advertising (advertising other than collateral, print ads and broadcast) we can't communicate at all touchpoints. Therefore, it is incumbent upon my agency to suggest new ideas -- even going so far as to create spec work -- to bring our clients up to speed. However, we have heard that a strong Return on Investment is becoming more and more important to our clients. Not sure if that will translate into more touchpoint marketing.
diversity of stakeholders and cultures between retailers, advertisers and traditional agencies
Silo effect: poor communication and alignment of objectives between sales and marketing groups. Senior management is responsible for this. Some marketers I know believe their responsibility ends at "the door of the store." This sort of nonsense is bad for business. On the other hand, putting salespeople in charge communicating brand equity at the red zone touchpoint isn't smart either. They're neither trained nor incented to recognize or build equity. Eradicating functional disconnects like these should be the neame of the game. Another functional disconnect: communication, coordination and integration of consumer advertising, consumer promotion and trade promotion. I could go on and on, but these are the biggies, at least in CPG.
It starts with selling the concept of integrating the tactic into the plan, then dealing with the related costs...and then getting commitment to proceed.
Hard to measure compliance Hard to create tests Too much intervening "human media" Organizations' splits between sales and marketing functions
There is little information available to help an organization implement a truly workable plan to communicate across all touchpoints.
integration, process and selling the idea
in a b-to-b world, we fail to understand properly what our "brand" truly is . . . not necessarily what we sell, but maybe what we enable for the actual end user (consumer).
1 - The best branded retail communications and environments are often undermined by staffing practices and training that are focused on selling and operations, rather than building relationships and a sense of the brand in action. 2 - Product selection and merchandising are still dominated by operators, not marketers, with little effort made to relate product solutions to the promise of the store.
Different responsiblities for various touchpoints--spread across many departments and individuals
Managing it across a distributed organization. The key to making it work is simplicity -- the easier it is for front line staff to make it happen, the better. Also, sharing results helps garner buy in.
management turnover, lack of focus and big picture view of the company
The biggest obstacle is gettting everyone on board, working together, to acheive a common goal. Every area still works in a silo with their own set of goals and priorities. Getting everyone to see the big picture, beyond their immediate area of responsibility, can be a challenge. Just as Wall Street dictates the importance of meeting short-term objectives, so do weekly sales goals. Oftentimes, this means overlooking the big picture for sustainable long-term growth.
measurement of ROI and consumer effectiveness of messaging through non traditional vehicles especially at the point of purchase. They are not promotional vehicles and shouldn't be measured that way. They are brand building tools to carry the brand idea all the way to the point of purchase.
Sales does not communicate with Marketing amd vice versa.
Getting everyone on the same page. Changing set ways. The risk taking issues and sales now objectives
Time and money to impliment program
persistent attitudes among cient leadership -- that advertising nor marketing is accountable
Crowded environment.......Outstanding ideas
Not achieving consensus or clear understanding of the specific objectives at every touchpoint is the obstacle.
lack of integration of insight resources between client and agencies. client too focused on brand consumer segments, need to invest in understandign shopppers to be relvant at retail planning and selling in programs.
Greatest obstacle is message clutter. We overcome this by using cell-phone marketing
lack of communication to the consumer
effective collaboration, understanding of the audience, client budget
Right now, it's budgets. I think we have the Know-How and the Know-Why but are short on the dollars.
integrating a consistent message across multiple touchpoints is tough when you have different agencies for every marketing discipline
Coordination of efforts between Marketing and Operations
Different stakeholders at the client with different agendas.
Budget Restrictions overcome with Guerilla marketing tactics.
crossing departments
We are a management consultancy, so this is less applicable to what we do than it would be to a retail-related company.
As a wholesaler, we do not have access to our ultimate consumers (retailers will not divulge customer info) -- thus touching them in the ways that we have been have been ineffective.
Cultural inertia
Identifying just the right point so that you do not distract from the purchase.
Independent third party distributors control most consumer touchpoints.
The key problem is that either organisations do not control all the key touchpoints - ie retailers - or that those that are controlled are not coordinated. Achieving coordination is a mtter of training and careful planning - above all that evryone in contact with customers understands and 'lives' the brand, to deliver the right sort of brand experience.
the retailer actually executing all parts of the plan
The obstacle is effective execution which we have not overcome. yet.
Multiple budget holders that want to do things their way, versus a consistent, complete, single voice to our customers.
barriers are our clients' budgets and my organization helps overcome this by helping our clients focus their resources on the touchpoints that will be most influential in the decision process
internal communications
Too many stakeholders with competing agendas Budgets for each area rather than the total consumer experience Inadequete intermediate/progress metrics
Challenges with understanding HOW consumers would like to communicated to/with. We must consider how each consumer wants us to communicate via touchpoints and provide a variety of opportunities for the consumer to drive that communication.
Money and a lack of understanding of how to use the different touchpoints among my clients
Organized, actionable information.
Lack of experience in certain areas; tedency to go with what works; fear of the unknown; general uncertainty about retail: very important but we don't necessarily grasp its potential nor feel comfortable operating in it
resources, focused efforts
The greatest obstacle is orchestrating all the touchpoints effectively. Discipline and focus in brand architecture and communications is just part of the answer. The rest lies in creativity and technology.
Understanding media options to take full advantage of audience fragmentation and changing media habits. By continuing to meet with and learn about the capabilities of new technology and media vendors and their audiences.
Too much knowledge in too few hands
We have still not learned how to communicate between business units, which is what we will need in order to build a coherent strategy across the three platforms of our business (print, online and in-person).
Building better partnerships (vs. vendor relationships) with our clients.
organizational culture
Money and manpower -- we overcome this by demonstrating ROI to management and by using software programs that maximize our manpower hours
meetings
budget
the inertia to change old ways
Budget constraints, resource constraints
We are just starting out.
Gatekeepers at retailers is one of the biggest challenges but our website offers opportunities to reach consumers and we are just starting to tap into that resource.
baronies and inertia. Peple feel reassured by thinkink and acting like the books say
Silos - Engage client contact at the highest levels
understanding the trade/retailer to generate effective strategies
actually identifying touchpoints and affecting purchase at these points
Costs - continually pursuing ways to education the consumer about our brands.