Multichannel Marketing Class June 11: Final Case and Wrap Up

We had a great last class with several guest evalulators from industry and Dr. Geoff Gordon from NIU. Students presented the final case which was to put together a multichannel media strategy for an insurance company. The additional challenge was to work through the agent network. The students did a fabulous job. They recognized the importance of the database as a central respository of information across channels. Several groups suggested interesting segmentation strategies. I was impressed with their creative suggestions for using social media, although with the age of the insurance agents it might be difficult to get them on board. Also, Rob Jackson pointed out with all the regulation in the insurance industry and privacy regulation and concerns it might be difficult for agents to really participate in such an open media. We learned in four weeks about all the major media channels, direct mail, email, search, internet, etc., and about databases, analytics and measurement related to multichannel marketing. I think media channels will become more and more fragmented and marketers will face more challenges in the future. Thanks again to NIU's Marketing 660 CE1 MBA Class, Special Topic: Multichannel Marketing, for a great four weeks!