No matter what you have to offer, no matter how great the benefits are, there is no consideration unless there is an effective channel to the customer. As simple as that sounds, it is key and ongoing preoccupation of the marketing effort to discover and optimize the channel mix for a specific offering.
At one time just prior to the launch of the original iPhone, a client of mine was developing video games for cell phones. Feature phones actually. Tremendous insight on their part. Cell phones were just starting to get powerful enough to have built-in cameras. And with that came displays that had utility for simple video games. Of course, we are well past the point of insight now. That is, with everyone carrying a phone around, there were going to be dead times where the owner was idle. Bored even. It seemed that simple video games on the phone would have a draw. And so this small bootstrapped company of enterprising pioneers, worked tirelessly to rapidly put out new titles. Unfortunately, they reminded me somewhat of starving artists.
Great talent. Great products. But the channel to the customer needed to pass through the deepest fog that existed. And the name of that fog was Rogers Communications. You see, the path to the customer was over the cellular network. At the time, game titles were purchased from the cellular service provider and downloaded wirelessly directly to the handset. Of course, this had the makings of an ideal, direct-to-the-customer distribution channel. Except for one fact. The cellular service provider had zero interest in reaching the customer. Although they had a direct channel to the customer, the navigation from the handset to reach the game site was impossible to find. I had tried independently for quite some time, until I finally had to relent and be shown how to get there.
So it had all the makings of an ideal channel, delivering to an ideal customer base, who unknowingly was quite ready to fill in that idle time with something rather light, and engaging. But unfortunately, that ideal channel was like going through a fog in the middle of the night, while passing through some unlit back alley. When the iPhone emerged, it was no surprise that developers for phone apps stampeded to develop for this platform. Besides the attraction of the hardware itself, the channel opportunity was a total contrast to the status quo. Apple believed in the value of the apps. At the time, they had already demonstrated huge success with iTunes and the App Store was going to get the same type of promotion. Apple was in fact a channel partner who truly enabled that connection to the customer.
Learning about and understanding the dynamics within each of the channels is certainly as tantamount as the benefits that your product offering delivers. And channel partners can be either enabling or disabling to the process of connecting with the customers. It all needs to be understood in order to derive and maintain the channel mix that is best for you. Otherwise, you could have an ideal channel, but it feels like quicksand.