LIVONIA, Mich. - In a newly released whitepaper, Valassis, a leader in intelligent media delivery, delves further into today's path to purchase (P2P), to offer insights on how marketers can make it work for their brands.

The marketing community has been closely monitoring the evolution of the path to purchase and its impact on not only reaching, but influencing and engaging consumers. P2P has become a key reference point for media planning, resulting in major changes to the way consumers buy and the way marketers plan their campaigns. In this "new media mix," consumers have emerged as a critical partner in media planning.

The whitepaper, "Path to Purchase – Making it Work," points out that while the long-standing "funnel" has now been abandoned, the challenge remains on how to operationalize the new "cycling" model. In the New Valassis Planning Model, the goals of the advertiser are aligned to the consumer P2P steps, framing  the selection, ranking and weighing of the media. Branding and activation media are integrated in the new planning model. Marketers must recognize: 

• Multiple touch points on the P2P
• Integrated multi-channel media planning
• Different levels of consumer engagement in each channel touch point
• Personalization and localization with the growing presence of wall-less retailers

This whitepaper was developed by Valassis' College for Advanced Media Planning (CAMP) Publishing, the educational arm of Valassis. CAMP is dedicated to advancing and innovating media planning through state-of-the-art education, publication and certification.  For more information and to download the whitepaper, visit

http://www.valassis.com/path-to-purchase-white-paper-email.aspx.