In the 81st minute a shock goal from Argentina sent Brazil tumbling out of the 1990 soccer world cup. As jaws dropped, all eyes around the world fell not on the goal scorer, but on Diego Maradona.
The Argentinian superstar had delivered a sublime assist to set up an easy goal. The most valuable player that day was not the player who scored the game’s only goal.
The journey of a ball to a goal may be compared to the journey of a consumer to a purchase. Data collected at touchpoints across different channels along the consumer journey is often more valuable than data collected at purchase. Until recently it has been hard to capture and avail of that value.
Retailers lost sight of the ball when e-commerce kicked the ball out of a defined playing field and into other channels.
"Store passes to Website who passes to Social. Social passes back to Store. Store taps it to Mobile who scores.”
Mobile might have sealed the deal, but was that largely a result of Social being in the right place at the right time or of Website making a brilliant connection with Social? And what about Store who set the ball rolling?
There is also the competition. Did an opposing channel make a good tackle or intercept a pass? Or was progress pretty much unhindered? Was the leadership team’s pre-game homework on the opposition more useful than any individual channel’s contribution? Better technology and more opportunities for analytics are providing answers to these questions.
Learn how retailers are now winning the ball back through three intertwined approaches to handling consumer touchpoints:
- Keeping your eyes on the ball
Connecting the multiple touch points - Controlling the ball
Making each touchpoint count - Taking your eyes off the ball
Evaluating the role of each touchpoint