From Multichannel Marketing to Omnichannel Marketing – The Strategic Shift

You wake up in the morning and switch on the Television. There is an ad of Coca Cola running. You open the newspaper while sipping Coffee. There is an ad of Coca Cola in the newspaper.

You open your mobile to check on Facebook posts, SMS and WhatsApp messages. A banner ad of Coca Cola flashes in between.

You step out of your home to go for a movie. There is an ad of Coca Cola in the billboard. You start the FM Radio in your car. There is a Coca Cola Ad in between songs that are running.

You go to the movie theatre. There is a Coca Cola banner outside the theatre. In the movie, the hero and heroine are sipping Coca Cola while engaging in a romantic dialogue or singing a song. During the interval, a message flashes in the screen: ‘Have a Coca Cola Break’.  

Welcome to the world of Omnichannel Marketing.

What is Omnichannel Marketing? The various definitions given by companies are:

Square defines it as: “Meeting people on the channels where they are shopping and buying, whether it’s in a physical store or an online store or on social media, and connecting the dots between those channels. The purpose is to keep customers moving around within the brand ecosystem, with each channel working in harmony to nurture more sales and engagement.”

Hubspot defines it as: “the ability to deliver a seamless and consistent experience across channels, while factoring in the different devices that consumers are using to interact with your business.”

Google defines it as: “ensuring marketing strategies are geared toward enabling customers to convert on any channel.”

Omni-channel marketing is more about providing an experience — the omni-channel customer experience — transcending any one medium and simply providing shoppers what they want, when they want and wherever they want.

It’s important to separate an omni-channel experience from a multi-channel experience. All omni-channel experiences will use multiple channels, but not all multi-channel experiences are omni-channel. A particular company might have an incredible website, social media presence, and mobile marketing – but it’s not omni-channel if they don’t all work together.

Companies focusing on omni-channel experience use knowledge about a customers’ platform and device that is used to interact with them in order to deliver an integrated experience. This integrated experience means that messaging, goals, objectives, and design is consistent across each channel and device — and information is shared quickly and accurately between them.

Starbucks is a company that is considered a market leader in omnichannel marketing. Starbucks offers a free drink when a customer signs up for their loyalty program and gets a loyalty card. The customer can then check and reload their card through phone, website, in-store, or on the app — and any change to the card or their profile gets updated across all channels, in real-time. If suppose a customer having a loyalty card doesn’t have enough money on her card while she is standing in line to order a latte, she can reload it on the spot and it’ll been updated by the time she swipes to pay.

Multichannel marketing has it’s own problems and constraints. In 2014, the dealers selling Samsung Mobile Phones were up in arms against the company as the Samsung Phones were available at a huge discount in Amazon and Flipkart and the customers were shunning the physical stores. Flipkart had raised $1 billion in investments and Amazon had announced $2 billion in investments and both the companies were using deep discounting to drive sales and increase their GMV (Gross Merchandise Value). The Delhi Mobile Association (DMA) wrote an email to Samsung, Apple, Sony, LG, HTC & Micromax to take punitive action against the online retailers. But nothing was done. In between this humdrum between online and offline retailers because of Samsung's multichannel approach, it was a relatively unknown brand called ‘Xiaomi’ who made their debut in India and within a span of three years became the number one smartphone brand in India surpassing Samsung, Apple, Sony, LG, HTC & Micromax by using a smart omnichannel marketing strategy.

The days of multichannel marketing is gone and it is now the era of omnichannel marketing. The shopping arena is dominated by Millennials and Gen Z customers who love omnichannel marketing. Due to the Covid19 Pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing, even Gen X and Gen Y customers are also giving a preference to omnichannel marketing. And this is one strategy that can give a holistic customer experience, drive sales and give competitive advantage in the long run.