Correspondence: Angus Jenkinson, Centre for Integrated Marketing University of Bedfordshire Business School CEO, Stepping Stones Consultancy Ltd. Grange Farm Barn Upper Dean PE28 0LT, England. Tel: +44 845 6588856; e-mail: angus.jenkinson@stepping-stones.org

¹is Professor of Integrated Marketing at the Centre for Integrated Marketing, University of Bedfordshire, and CEO/Founder of Stepping Stones Consultancy Ltd., a research, strategy and planning service firm.

Received 11 May 2007; Revised 11 May 2007.

Abstract

This paper reviews the concept of touchpoint planning based on contemporary research into human psychology, attitudes, loyalty and persuasion, and then describes a model and practical tool for putting this learning into practice based on the CODAR system. It draws from research in three areas:

1. human psychology, which is significantly shifting much of the theory about consumer attitudes as developed over the previous 30–40 years;
2. marketing communication, and in particular integrated communication, from the perspective of both planning and evaluation and
3. database/data-driven marketing, taking brief note of recent developments in digital technology.

The approach is unusual, since it borrows from advertising research to develop best practice in database marketing/customer management, which it is proposed will in turn be useful to conventional advertisers. By focusing on the most difficult and complete area of branded communication, that is, branded personalised communication, such as a customised webpage or interactive television, and applying the standards from across all marketing communication disciplines to develop an integrated model, useful learning is derived for practitioners focused on both personalised communications and mass/segmented depersonalised communication, such as advertising on traditional television channels.