The offline world still exists

May 12, 2008 Marketing

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Stowe Boyd posted his story about his experience with Clear, and “bet[s] that Clear is going to do everything wrong“.

More than the customer service aspect of it, one thing that really struck me is this. With all the focus on online tools and Web 2.0 and all, it’s really easy to forget the basics – the offline things. Basic things like the sign on a door.

There’s so much talk about how companies should join the online conversation, create more engagement online, make their online tools more personal, etc. It’s easy to forget that for most companies, a large part of the customer experience is still the offline aspect.

It’s a simple thing. But one that we need to remember. As companies, or as individuals building our personal brands, even. We need to remember that there’s still an offline component. It’s easy to forget, especially when we make changes, because online is so much easier to change. It’s easier to change a website than to change the sign on a door. But they’re both just as important.

You’ve got to make sure that what you say and do offline matches what your behavior online. Not everyone’s going to check your website all the time.

Yes, the web allows you to spread your message further and establish your brand more. But your brand still exists offline. You’ve got to pay just as much attention to the offline experience.

There’s still an outside world that exists offline.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • Derrick Kwa

    Hi Ron. Yeah. I wonder, has there actually been any empirical/concrete studies done about that? Like, how many people prefer face-to-face vs online interactions.

  • Ron
    Good point. I work with some firms that are using Back to Basics (High Touch) as a differentiator. They realize how some customers prefer the face-to-face / snail mail touch.
  • Derrick Kwa

    Yeah. Well, the danger for most of us in the internet marketing world is that lots of us are "complete online junkies", so it's really easy to get trapped in the fishbowl, so to speak.

  • genie
    yup, completely agree. at the end of the day, its still about integrated marketing. Internet and social media tools, however progressively utilized, are still one of many marketing techniques. and im personally more of a believer in perfecting the in-store customer experience, because what you look, see and touch are more tangible. and besides, unless the consumer is a complete online junkie, he/she still exists in the offline world for most part of the day (=
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