The Challenge of Multichannel Marketing Management

It had been five years since Jordi Catalá, the founder and CEO of Sleeping (a manufacturer and distributor of sleep-related products and bedding), had launched his company's online channel. E-commerce now accounted for 10% of total sales and was about to reach breakeven in terms of the income statement. Tension between the traditional and online marketing teams was high, and Jordi felt like they were unable to work together and take advantage of synergies between departments. He had to get involved in marketing decisions more often, and the head of the online channel kept asking for additional funds. After taking a look at the SEM campaigns and the Google display, he was surprised to see that the majority of them had a negative contribution margin. Was he evaluating the yield of the investment in the online channel properly? Was there really still room to increase the investment in the search engine? What was the optimal organizational structure to get the most from the company's marketing campaigns?