• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 26, 2016

Cross channel marketing may be a misnomer.

Speaking at MediaPost’s Cross-Channel Marketing Insider Summit, Ben Gaddis, chief innovation officer of T3, says it is not about “channels” but about “experiences.

“That is what consumers are looking for,” he says. Gaddis adds consumers are not all forgiving about this: “They don’t care if you can’t figure it out.” Consumers have even higher expectations from marketers than ever before, he says.

Marketers should just make sure their products are “useful” and then “get out of the way.”

Gaddis' agency then decided to define the word “useful.” And the results came up with 14 different elements that make up a “useful” brand. This includes performance, utility, and, of course, how a product makes you feel.

Then after surveying 5500 consumers T3 ranked some 300 major brands. Top score? Amazon’s had a 808 ouf 1,000. Next four top scorers Hyundai, Google, Kleenex, Visa. Burger King got a score of 615 out of 1000. “They are higher in ‘relationship’ than in ‘performance’.”

Gaddis believes these factors are key in altering brands marketing efforts towards consumers.