Optimistic Marketing in Challenging Times: Serving Ever-Shifting Customer Needs Proceedings of the 2022 AMS Annual Conference, May 25-27, Monterey, CA, USA

Starting from the analysis of the importance of the omnichannel strategy, we gave a detailed definition to further understand the role of marketing in this approach. An omnichannel strategy aims to optimize the management of every single touchpoint, not only by focusing on the customer, but also by creating an integrated system with all the touchpoints. Omnichannel strategy is thus a marketing strategy whose main goal is to satisfy consumers by guaranteeing a return on investment for businesses. The Pandemic has pushed companies more and more towards an omnichannel strategy. Lockdowns imposed by governments to curb COVID-19 dramatically changed consumer behaviour. The omnichannel strategy is not just an approach but a real marketing tool that allowed companies to survive the COVID emergency which has affected in-store shopping channels but also the online world (McKinsey & Company, 2020). After the COVID emergency, the online traffic continues to remain at significantly high levels, both in terms of shopping and in terms of offering consumers details of products before they visit the store to buy them. Influenced by this behaviour, companies are improving their websites, social media, events, tradeshows. To better understand the benefits and the barriers to entry of omnichannelism, 6-question questionnaires were answered by 12 Marketing managers from different fields. The aim was to understand the impact on sales and awareness of the omnichannel approach both from a customer’s and a company’s point of view. The results show that close to the entire number of the interviewed believes that omnichannel strategy generates an improvement in awareness, engagement, and loyalty, along with lead acquisition and, finally, a tangible and measurable increase in sales. Over 70% of the businesses consider omnichannelism a fundamental lever to reach marketing goals in terms of improvement in sales and customers, although there exist barriers in terms of technology, organization, budget, governance, vision, and business culture that may hinder the path towards omnichannelism. The benefits of an omnichannel approach find significant expression within the corporate processes related to client management: in particular, customer care, marketing & communication, and sales. The creation of omnichannel customer care may allow businesses to achieve both tangible benefits and intangible, as attested by the companies that have already worked in this direction. While it is undeniable, on one hand, that omnichannelism is widely discussed among businesses, on the other hand it is undeniable that the actual implementation of such strategies from a technical and organizational perspective is still embryonic. The path towards omnichannelism is yet to be traced, and its driveshaft is Marketing.