When Online Meets Offline: Research in Omni-Channel Marketing

Whereas it is almost impossible to imagine living without being digital nowadays, it was nearly impossible to imagine living with these digital technologies a quarter of a century ago. With the advent of digital technologies and ongoing digitalization, new channels – for communication and distribution – have proliferated, which has affected business models, marketing strategies, and consumer behavior.
This dissertation aims to gain a better understanding in dealing with two prominent challenges for marketing introduced with the digitalization: (1) management of different (online and offline) communication channels, and (2) management of different sales channels. Chapter 2 addresses the first challenge by presenting insights into the effectiveness of a traditional marketing communication tool in the online environment and the synergy between a traditional and digital marketing communication tool. Despite the rise of digital media, direct mailing is proven to still serve as an effective marketing tool, both by itself and in combination with digital marketing. Chapter 3 addresses the second challenge by investigating whether all customers should be multichannel. In contrast to conventional wisdom and prior literature, multichannel customers do not always generate more revenue. Boundary conditions need to be considered in order to best serve different types of customers across all offered brands. Finally, chapter 4 presents a general discussion of this research and its outcomes, explores both managerial and practical implications, and offers directions for future research. Altogether, it is almost impossible to imagine living without being digital nowadays, however, the question remains whether we know how to live with the digital technologies?