Multichannel Marketing, The Patagonia Way

Online advertising contributes to a balanced marketing approach, Todd said. “We’ve noticed that when we’ve worked on some models that had purely online-acquired customers and removed those types from prospect models, that we’ve seen a lift from people who purchased from search and affiliate marketing,” he said.

Through its search marketing program, about 64 percent of those prospects who come to the Patagonia site are new to the brand. Patagonia focuses its search using industry-specific terms such as “organic cotton” or “waterproof jacket.” “We look at customers who come through search or affiliate by near-term value,” Todd said. “Net profit after a six-month time frame, these customers have a $78 value to us; among those who also buy out of the catalog, their value is $112. So the catalogs remain a really powerful vehicle for Patagonia.”

Patagonia, whose business model adheres to being a premium brand marketer and not a value/off-price cataloger, nevertheless has seen much activity from consumers using shopping comparison search engines over the past two years, Todd said. The six-month net profit among these buyers is $71 compared to search engine ($79) and affiliate program ($65) buyers.

“We didn’t think shopping comparison engines warranted any action at all initially,” Todd said. “We tested them out and found we have more customers shopping comparison engines.”

Also on the panel was Elisa Kraus, vice president of analytics for Abacus, which works closely with Patagonia. She outlined six key tips to maximizing response for multichannel marketers, such as Patagonia.

1. Institute a database architecture that facilitates insight and execution.
2. Have the right organization internally to make it happen. “Patagonia,” she said, “has a direct side and e-tail side and everything’s very much in sync.”
3. Create dashboard report metrics to get a baseline and ongoing read.
4. Build your own customer lifecycle and profile by segment.
5. Develop a contact strategy across multiple channels -- direct mail integrated with e-mail. Have a unified voice to the customer through these various channels.
6. Measure results and modify as needed.