I’m heading off my post today with an 80’s style motivational poster because I want to get you ready to face a challenge. I’m going to give you the same challenge that Chas Edwards of Federated Media gave everyone attending the Future of Online Advertising conference this past June.

I challenge you to stop thinking in terms of online media and offline media. Instead, start thinking simply “media.”

The objective should be locating customers and finding where they are most engaged. Find where your target market goes what they are involved in. Then find the best way to start a conversation with them.

Most likely, you will find that an interwoven net of different mediums, both online and offline, is necessary to start a desired dialog with consumers.

A recent study featured in Ad Age, from Jupiter Research and iProspect, makes the interdependency of both online and offline mediums even more apparent. The study revealed that more than two-thirds of search experiences are started by offline channels, and “those who’ve initially been influenced by an offline channel tend to have a higher propensity to buy: 39% of them ultimately make a purchase.”

What becomes obvious is how important consistency of messages becomes.  Robert Murray, president of iProspect, puts it this way:

“If you roll out a new car, you want a site that’s well-optimized organically and has a paid search supporting campaign with same color scheme, same taglines, same spokespeople.”

All touch points have to be the same, whether they are printed in ink, generated with millions of 1’s and 0’s, vibrating through the airwaves or coming across the tube. 

That said, Will you accept the challenge?

You and your team spent months developing a marketing plan that would position your company as the sole leader in the uncharted waters of a new market or market segment.

You agonized over all the little things that make a big difference and made sure all your tools were working together to send a consistent, unified and powerful message. You left nothing out, tag-teaming traditional and new mediums to work as one. You provided a total package: Print Ads, Social Networking, Blogging, Outdoor, Viral Medium, Direct Mail, Opt-in Email, PR, Buzz tools and you even touch in a little in TV and Radio.

Then the big day comes to unleash your beast into the marketplace so that everyone will hear (and see) your company roar.

You send in the troops and launch your campaign. 

Lets fast forward a few weeks and months. The results are in, you can confidently say that the campaign has been a success and you have the numbers to prove it. Your company has established itself as the sole-leader of their market. Life is good.

Then the copycats emerge.  Ripoff versions of your products and marketing are popping up everywhere. What do you do?

Here’s where many companies (if they had the guts to make it this far) often make a fatal wrong turn. There is a tendency to try and take the company in totally new direction, one without so many lookalikes. This is often not the best decision. This would be surrendering all of the market share, that you strategically took ownership of months before, to your competitors .

Copycats are just that copies. They will never gain the benefits of being first and best in the market. It’s like Seth Godin’s 80 to 1 ratio in comparing sales of the Freakonomics-like books that popped up after the success of Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics. Seth says, “Some of them are actually pretty good, few are selling at all.” A lot of times consumers will see the copycats and think of your brand, because your company holds the first position in their mind.

So, hold your position. That doesn’t mean you can’t make adjustments. Just don’t be afraid of competition. If you ever wind up in a situation in which you have no competitors, look around. You may not have any customers either. That or you will soon be hearing from the government on monopoly issues.