Build it and they will come
Although this phrase is normally attributed to technology vendors, it can be applied to almost any business.
A key problem with many new products and services is that market research and/or customer input isn’t completed in advance of introducing the product.
And other issues could be that the business model and/or the market penetration process are not well thought out.
Customer acquisition won’t necessarily follow a decision to shift (or even eliminate) channels. It certainly isn’t automatic!
And the move to social media and social networking is another area where building it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that anyone will come to read, view, tweet, friend or fan you.
Bottom line is to know your customer and know the profitability of each channel. The customer is multi-channel and some channels actually commoditize your product offering (can you say Online?), so be cautious about being wooed to shift business to somehow get more “control” of the customer relationship.