As offline and online channels converge, businesses must adapt to ensure a seamless customer journey across all touchpoints

Expertise in channel management-as indeed in other fields-can often be self-referential. The conversations on universal principles for the management of the offline channel typically have little or no intersection with those for the online channel. While a number of these principles-developed in their silos-are indeed extremely useful, the consumer is (still) a person. Even in B2B businesses, the key decision-maker is a person or a group of persons.

It is the ‘people-ness’ of these people (consumers, customers) that creates a case for integrated thinking. Consistency of what a brand is saying is important essentially because of the much-cited phenomenon of short attention spans. However, consistency is not sufficient-condition to get some of the scarce attention that’s essential at the very top of the funnel (attention-> interest-> decision-> action, or AIDA, the old marketing reliable).

For instance, the individual seeking a new smartphone is probably going to visit a big retail outlet, where they might interact with a brand representative and try out a demo unit. They might come across an Instagram post highlighting a new model. If this person is inclined towards gathering information and may have also read some reviews online and watched a YouTube influencer comparing different models. A few years ago, the number of people who have both offline and online dimensions in their purchase decision might have been very small, but this cohort is quite salient now.

The challenging aspect in this customer journey is that the last A in AIDA, ‘action’ (purchase) might happen offline or online. Therefore, segregated structures for offline and online channels are not sustainable in the long term. It is clearly in the brand’s interest that offline and online channels are, “telling the same story.” Whether this story is of a new feature or a new colour, whether it be a story told in a YouTube video or by an in-store demonstrator. Integration of offline and online channels is, therefore, essential for a coherent conversation with the consumer.

No smart manager starts with making a case for unintegrated offline and online channels. This situation arises because of some recurring, largely structural issues.

The offline channel is often managed through a command-and-control structure that has evolved over decades, while the online channel is relatively more nascent. Companies taking the latter lightly is of course rarely the case now but there’s still much to learn about its dynamics. The narrative of D2C (direct-to-consumer) models being unviable that has set in among many minds after the boom and bust in the fortunes of D2C startups may delay integration efforts, but will not stop the growth in the salience of online channels.

Managerial specialisation is another reason for offline and online channels not being integrated. Individuals who have acquired expertise through experience on offline channels are not necessarily the ones best suited to build or develop online channels, but with time this will change.

Online and offline channels sometimes end up being unintegrated because of the list (or checklist) approach to channel execution. In this approach channel management is essentially a set of activities to be completed in a particular order. While the list approach is a hallmark of the manager who is strong at execution, it is not ideal for capturing strategic thinking. The choice of a metaphor that represents strategic thinking is essential for the integration of offline and online channels. Interconnected funnels might be a good, safe choice of metaphor in case a manager is struggling to find the ideal one for her context.

Structural adjustments and readjustments will continue to happen, but integrated channel thinking is inevitable, because of its direct impact on customer experience.

(The writer is Co-Founder of Channelplay; views are personal)