One of the biggest challenges for marketers in the New Economy is figuring out ways to integrate the myriad marketing avenues at their fingertips into coherent campaigns that don't mix messages or confuse consumers. It's not easy. And it's almost impossible to run multi-tiered advertising and marketing programs without using several different outside agencies, all of which might not have gotten the memo on the overall theme of the campaign. If ever there was the potential for too many cooks to ruin a brand message, it's right now amid the noise of so many companies trying to win over increasingly affluent, educated, and picky customers. You have different people in different departments working on the same campaign.
Nobody wants to look like anyone else, and that's problem number one.
Managing an integrated marketing campaign is difficult, not impossible. It just requires vigilance, communication, patience, and the willingness to troubleshoot and change direction with little notice. Companies that have done it well generally agree that coordinating a modern marketing campaign is about half inspiration, half perspiration, and half consternation. Staples has become expert at using its retail stores and its Internet presence to drive traffic to both places. Some vehicles allow you to inject humor, others are a bit more challenging.