The book that I have been wanting to write for some time now -- having cast aside two different partially plotted novels with character sketchs drawn in outline -- has morphed into a marketing book about marketing communications. Here is the tentative outline as I see it today.
Integrated Marketing Communications
-- The traditional definition
-- What this would mean if translated onto the Web
-- Why we must work toward a new definition of integrated maketing that focuses on the integration of on-line and off-line communications
What Are the Building Blocks?
On-line
--Banner
--E-mail
--Search
--Affiliates
Off-line
-- TV
-- Radio
-- Print
-- Promotions
-- Outdoor
posted by amanda at 3:33 PM
"The Sock Puppet Did Not Die in Vain." He taught us lessons on market channels and the value of understanding market channel strategy. Even while Sock Puppet's creators were losing millions of dollars and building their brand with the puppet, deemed by none other than
Advertising Age as the "first bona fide advertsing celebrity to be created in dotcom land," there were others who predicted that Web was in fact just a new channel. These individuals noted that the expected survivors would be clicks and mortar organizations, not the "pure play" dotcoms. This has been borne out in many instances. Although Amazon and eBay have become household names, it is directly attributeable to first mover status
and the quality of the user's experience, not just because they are Web businesses.
This is because the Web is not "so totally new" as those caught up in it by their youthful enthusiasm and lack of understanding of marketing fundamentals would have led us to believe. It is simply another channel. It extends the reach of the organization beyond the walls of the store. It was no newer than the mail order catalog pioneered by Sears Roebuck a century before, just different. The challenge has been to harness the new channel and to clearly define what it offers.
posted by amanda at 3:20 PM
