The areas which are crucial to the creation of synergy and in which partners must share homogenous views, objectives and strategies are: brand handling, value gain for consumers, infrastructure, brand loyalty, channel optimization and data exchange.

Determining a brand-channel-strategy is about analyzing what values your brand represents and ensuring that these are communicated to the consumer in all situations, via ll channels appealing to all senses.

A dotcom company is likely, in the initial phases of the clicks-&-mortar relationship, to have access to only 20% of potential customers. The costs of harnessing the other 80% via offline communications would be enormous, except for the presence of the offline partner whose contact with the target 80% is already established.