Market Core · Marketing Channels · Module
The mix
How channels combine and in what sequence — because channels interact, and a mix managed as a set of independent lines will misread all of them.
The idea
How it works
The long-and-short evidence is consistent: channels that build memory work slowly and raise the efficiency of channels that capture demand. Managed separately, the first looks unaccountable and the second looks brilliant, and the budget moves accordingly until both stop working.
Sequence matters as much as allocation. A channel that only converts existing intent has nothing to convert if nothing upstream created it.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Split the budget by job, not by channel
How much is creating future demand and how much is capturing current demand. That split is the actual decision.
- 02
Expect the demand-capture channels to look better
They are measured against demand they did not create. Knowing that prevents the budget draining towards them.
- 03
Sequence the mix
Something has to create the demand before anything can capture it.
- 04
Change the mix slowly
Effects lag by months. Reallocating quarterly on quarterly data measures noise.
One level in
The components of the mix
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
Demand-capture channels always look better, because they are measured against demand they did not create.
The other modules in marketing channels
Channel selection
Which channels are used and why — matched to where the audience actually is and to what the message requires, rather than to what is available.
LearnChannel economics
What each channel truly costs and returns, including production, management time and the effect on other channels.
LearnTesting and incrementality
Whether a channel contributes demand that would not otherwise have arrived, established by withholding it rather than by observing it.
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