Advertising Age reports on the appearance of Alex Tosolini, Procter & Gamble’s vice president of e-commerce, at the magazine’s Digital Conference in New York: “He referred to today's emerging generation as ‘Generation C,’ which he described as ‘always connected, always computerized.’ The ‘C’ also describes consumers' desire to have ‘everything happen at the speed of a click’.”
The story says that Tosolini described the “blurring of the marketing and sales/distribution functions,” noting that “Facebook is both a marketing and a distribution channel as P&G has worked to develop ‘f-commerce’ capabilities on its fan pages, fulfilled by Amazon, which has become a top 10 retail account for Pampers.
"’All of a sudden the traditional model of marketing does this, sales does this is blurred,’ he said. ‘Think about the implication for big companies on their need to adjust their reward system, their skill development, their training of their people to understand how to cooperate and work in this new environment.’
“At the same time, he said, ‘the paths to purchase now are completely unlimited.’ Pampers, for example, can be purchased in a bricks-and-mortar store, P&G's e-store, Amazon or Facebook.”
"We'll do almost anything once," he said, "then see if it works."
The story says that Tosolini described the “blurring of the marketing and sales/distribution functions,” noting that “Facebook is both a marketing and a distribution channel as P&G has worked to develop ‘f-commerce’ capabilities on its fan pages, fulfilled by Amazon, which has become a top 10 retail account for Pampers.
"’All of a sudden the traditional model of marketing does this, sales does this is blurred,’ he said. ‘Think about the implication for big companies on their need to adjust their reward system, their skill development, their training of their people to understand how to cooperate and work in this new environment.’
“At the same time, he said, ‘the paths to purchase now are completely unlimited.’ Pampers, for example, can be purchased in a bricks-and-mortar store, P&G's e-store, Amazon or Facebook.”
"We'll do almost anything once," he said, "then see if it works."
- KC's View:
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The key thing here, it seems to me, is that P&G (as well as other manufacturers) wants to lay a stronger claim to its customers ... even to the point where it is willing to disintermediate traditional retailers. That’s something that these retailers need to think very seriously about. There are many “paths to purchase,” and traditional retail is just one of them.
