AdExchanger: Shopping Has Transformed. It’s Time For The Marketing Funnel To Catch Up

Nancy Hall, CEO of Mindshare North America, writes in AdExchanger that we all need to rethink our entire approach to the marketing funnel.

Converged funnel. Flattened funnel. Collapsed funnel. The non-funnel funnel. The funnel has been such a powerful visualization for the buying process for so long that, even a decade into radical shifts in consumer shopping habits, it’s hard to let go.

It’s still useful in explaining and shaping marketing strategies and tactics. Consider retail media, which is very strong at what was once the bottom of the funnel. If a shopper is in a retail app or a store, it’s safe to assume they’re about to purchase.

But I have complete confidence that if you’re using retail media or commerce marketing for the bottom of the funnel only, then you’re missing out on major opportunities.

Brands are being told loudly and often that they’ll need to rely on first-party data. Yet brands across categories might not have a huge data set to pull from. And even when they do, there might be a gap between what they have and what they need to craft a meaningful market plan.

This is where retail media matters. The data and the insights that major retailers can offer are quite powerful. And not just for bottom-of-the-funnel marketing. 

Read the entire piece at AdExchanger.